Cornwall set up county final decider after Kent win

Cornwall boss Dave Thomas is delighted that his side have set up a County Championship showdown with reigning champions Hertfordshire after their 23-17 win at Kent.

A late try converted from Sam Hocking saw the Duchy come away from Kent with a 23-17 victory.

"I'm absolutely over the moon," Thomas told BBC Radio Cornwall after the win.

"The boys are so confident, they've got that feeling that year we can win and we're going to win."

The winners of the game between Cornwall and Hertfordshire at Camborne on Saturday will go to Twickenham to contest for the Bill Beaumont Cup, with the Black and Gold having not been to RFU headquarters for 14 years.

But Cornwall had to work hard for their win despite taking a 13th minute lead after the Duchy's dominant pack drove Richard Brown over and Paul Thirlby added two penalties to make it 13-0 with 15 minutes to go in the first half.

Kent hit back as Richard Lankshear went under the posts before a third Thirlby penalty made it 16-7 at half time.

Rory Teague's second-half penalty and a second try for Lankshear put the hosts a point up before Hocking's try.

With Hertfordshire beating Gloucestershire 56-22 it means both sides have two wins from their opening two games after Cornwall's 24-19 win at Gloucestershire last week.

"Although the boys dug deep up at Cinderford last week, it was a different digging deep to get the win that has put us up for the game next Saturday," Thomas said.

"Herts play a different brand of rugby than us, running rugby all over the place, and we're going to have to impose our authority on them up front.

"But a really big crowd at Camborne on Saturday would make a massive difference and give us that impetus to get the result that we want.

"The boys have knitted into a very tight-knit squad, there's a lot of very positive characters in the squad and they keep up the momentum, enthusiasm and will to win. and that's very important," Thomas added.