County Championship: Cornwall's dramatic Gloucestershire win will galvanise side

Cornwall have won the Southern section of the County Championship for the past three seasons

Cornwall coach Graham Dawe says the county's dramatic win over Gloucestershire will help bring his squad together.

Rupert Freestone's try in the seventh minute of stoppage time helped Cornwall to a 33-27 win at Redruth.

The match was the opening game of the County Championship, which Cornwall won last year, having reached the final at Twickenham for the past three years.

"This game will galvanise us," Dawe told BBC Radio Cornwall.

"There's a few things that the players will want to put right, they'll want to cut down the errors, cut down the penalty count and I think they'll play a more determined game."

Matt Shepherd kicked 13 points for Cornwall in the win

Cornwall trailed 20-11 early in the second half before Sam Matavesi's second try of the game, a conversion and a penalty from Matt Shepherd, and a further score from scrum-half Greg Goodfellow put the Duchy 26-20 ahead with 11 minutes to go.

But Chris Rovery's 74th-minute try, which was converted by Leo Fielding, put the visitors one point ahead before Freestone's late winner which was supplemented by a Shepherd conversion.

"It's never over until the large lady sings," added Dawe, who was sacked as Plymouth Albion head coach last month.

"We had field position, even though we didn't have possession, and you've got to believe that they're going to go after it and they did.

"They gave us a cheap a line-out and the rest is history.

"The scrum and the drive has got us over the line. It's two very old-fashioned values of rugby union, the maul and the scrum, and it's not always the most popular aspect of the game, but there won't be too many Cornishmen complaining about it at the minute."

Cornwall could all-but seal a fourth successive visit to Twickenham if they can win at Hertfordshire in their second pool game next week, after the Duchy's next opponents beat Surrey 31-27 in their opening encounter.