GRAHAM Dawe has urged Cornish rugby fans to get behind their team this weekend as they stand just one game away from a Twickenham return, writes Bill Hooper.

A tense 22-16 victory away in Kent on Saturday, which saw scrum-half Matt Shepherd score all the Duchy's points, has set up a winner-takes-all final group stage tie with Hertfordshire at Redruth.

This will be the county's only home game of this season's County Championship and with a third trip to the iconic stadium in as many years, Cornwall's head coach is hoping a full Rec can give them the edge.

Dawe said: "The boys deserve a big crowd at Redruth on Saturday, there is no doubt that the Cornish crowd can be our 16th man and really lift the team in what will be a very tough game."

Cornwall were made to work hard by hosts Kent, who began the game the stronger enjoying both territory and possession in the Gravesend sunshine in the early stages.

Slowly Cornwall got a foot-hold on the game with Shepherd kicking the first of his penalties after 15 minutes.

They then piled on the pressure against the home-side who reduced to 14 as scrum-half Charlie Edwards was yellow-carded near his own line.

Quick thinking by Shepherd saw the scrum-half take a tap and go and dive over the line for what proved to be Cornwall's sole try of the afternoon, his conversion making it 10-0 to the Black and Golds.

Almost immediately Cornwall were caught offside allowing fly-half Alex Gallagher to open Kent's account with a penalty.

Billy Searle had another impressive game at full-back for Cornwall with some excellent touch kicking and elusive running, whilst in the pack the back row of skipper Kyle Marriott, Chris Fuca and George Jones enjoyed another big game.

Shepherd was on target twice more before half-time to put Cornwall 16-3 up at the break as Kent again found themselves down to 14 again as lock Royce Cadman was sin-binned.

Despite being a man down, Kent showed their metal early in the second half as they began to chip away at the lead with a couple of Gallagher penalties.

Man-of-the-match Shepherd calmed Cornish nerves both on and off the pitch to nudge his side further ahead with a two further penalties of his own with 10 minutes to play.

Cornwall, who conceded far too many penalties throughout the match, then found themselves under the cosh as Kent looked to salvage something from the game.

Ben Hilton was sin-binned as the pressure mounted and eventually a powerful maul from the hosts saw them go over the line in time added on with the ball buried under a host of bodies.

Gallagher added the conversion to leave Cornwall sweating on the final whistle greeted by a huge cheer from the Cornish support.

After the game, Dawe said: "I am delighted with the performance and our game management; once again our half-backs were superb and controlled the game well.

"We gave away a lot of penalties and I'll have a chat with the referee to see what areas we fell foul, we feel a bit hard done by as we hardly won a turnover today compared to last week.

"We've won twice on the road and that's always a special feeling, expectations will be high going into the game next week at Redruth but it's a challenge we will relish."

CORNWALL: 15 Searle (Cornish AB), 14 Venables (Saltash), 13 Murphy (Cornish AB), 12 Webber, 11 Wedlake (both Redruth), 10 Webb (Taunton), 9 Shepherd (Cornish AB); 1 Freestone (Clifton), 2 Salter (Cornish AB), 3 Williams (Redruth), 4 Whittle (Camborne), 5 Hilton (Cornish All Blacks), 6 Fuca (Redruth), 7 Jones (Penryn), 8 Marriott (Redruth, c).

REPS (all used): Grubb (Wadebridge Camels), Phillips (Redruth), Judge, Chapman (both Cornish AB), Goldsworthy (Camborne), Friend (Cornish AB), Parsons (Redruth).

TRY: Shepherd.

CON: Shepherd.

PENS: Shepherd (5).

SIN-BIN: Hilton.