Japan will play in its third straight Junior World Rugby Trophy final, this time against hosts United States after another exciting and close game - their third straight nail-biter of the tournament.

The Japanese, who held off a strong Georgia team 36-29 to advance, have been here before. The Brave Blossoms fell to Italy 36-7 in the 2010 JWRT final and narrowly lost to Samoa 31-24 in last year's championship.

So is third time the charm?

"In Japanese, third time is the best, too. We believe that," Japan head coach Ryuji Nakatake said. "Some of the players know the difficulty of playing in the final. It is not the same as the pool games."

Georgia had started the game brightly with an impressive try scored by Zura Dzneladze, which rattled the Japanese. The Lelos' winger scored after his team won the ball off a Japanese turnover. But that was the last of points for Georgia and the last mistake by Japan as the Brave Blossoms used an accurate kicking game and an impressive maul to hold possession and wear out the Lelos. Japan scored tries from Tsubasa Kizaki, Hayato Nishiuchi, Seiyu Kohara and Rikiya Matsuda to take a 29-5 lead into half-time.