Dawe saddened as Cornwall's Twickenham hopes end

Former England hooker Graham Dawe has been in charge of Cornwall's side since the summer of 2013

Cornwall head coach Graham Dawe says he is disappointed his side have missed out on a Twickenham final.

The Black and Gold were beaten 34-18 by Kent at Redruth in their opening pool game of the County Championship.

The win means Kent are guaranteed to top their three-team pool in the Bill Beaumont Cup after beating Hampshire 42-5 in their opening game last week.

Cornwall travel to Hampshire knowing a win will secure second place in the tournament, having lost out to Kent for third successive season.

"We thought we had parity up front, we had a great scrum, a very organised lineout," Dawe told BBC Radio Cornwall

"But maybe we were guilty of playing a bit too much sometimes and didn't really build any pressure, and they're very good."

Two Ben Charnock tries and a penalty try helped Kent lead 21-5 before Tom Cowan-Dickie, who had got Cornwall's opening score, got a second unconverted try shortly before half-time.

The two sides traded penalties early in the second period before Harry Larkins crossed for a 61st-minute penalty to close the gap to six points as Kent led 24-18.

Cornwall thought they had taken the lead soon after when Ben Plummer went over, but he was adjudged to have stepped into touch, and soon after Mikel Davies got the winning try.

"Losing two people to the bin doesn't help, stepping into touch doesn't help when we had momentum, and that would have been less than a one score game going into the last 15 minutes," added Dawe.

"Maybe she should have settled it in the first hour, but it didn't happen, and we paid the price."