KENT deservedly booked their place in the Bill Beaumont Cup final with this thrilling win at Redruth.

Some will point to the disallowed Ben Plummer try on 64 minutes when Cornwall trailed by six points following a superb break by Duncan Tout. Sadly for the Cornish faithful in Hellfire corner the officials got it right as the St Austell winger’s right foot touched the whitewash just before scoring.

It came at a time when the hosts were pressing hard to get on level terms.

Cornwall played up the slope first half looking to restrict Kent, an early penalty to Cornwall was kicked to the corner. Hooker Tom Cowan-Dickie made ground from the lineout but they infringed.

Kent got the opening score on 10 minutes, a clearance kick was charged down on the Cornwall 22, ball bounced wickedly on the hard surface eluding Tout but not Kent’s No.8 Ben Charnock who romped in under the sticks. Fly-half Sam Evans added the extras.

Cornwall needed a reply and it came from a lineout up in the scoreboard corner when Cowan-Dickie powered over for an unconverted try.

Kent upped their game with their back row looking sharp whilst the backs provided powerful running.

The visitors had a lineout down in Hellfire corner, they set up the drive that saw Cornwall take the drive to ground, Jon Drew sent to the bin and Kent awarded a penalty try.

Worst was to come, from a scrum on the Cornwall twenty-two, Charnock broke away shrugging off a poor Cornish tackle to stride under the posts, Evans’ conversion and Cornwall already faced a mountain to climb.

Good play from Alex Ducker and Matt Shepherd took play up towards the Kent line, from an ensuing lineout Cowan-Dickie was again on hand to get over and dot down.

A penalty from Evans put Kent two scores ahead early in the second half, Shepherd cut that back with his one successful kick of the game.

On 61 minutes both Ducker and Harry Larkins combined to put the young Camborne wing in at the Piggy Lane corner.

Plummer’s chance came and went, Larkins was again called into action to stop Kent’s hooker from scoring, it proved a brief respite as Kent’s excellent scrum-half Mikel Davies scored their fourth try converted by Evans.

Cornwall’s head coach Graham Dawe was understandably disappointed with the result. He said. “I felt we did well in the set-piece but at times we tended to over play it a bit, we were second best in the tackle area we need to see what went on there.

“Losing a couple of players to yellow cards didn’t help neither the foot in touch which would have made it a one score game at a critical moment.”

Cornwall’s final game is away at Havant RFC against Hampshire on Saturday (2.30pm).

Cornwall (Camborne unless stated): Matt Shepherd (St Austell, capt), Harry Larkins, Duncan Tout (Tonbridge Juddians), Sam James (Redruth), Alex Ducker, Dan Rutter (Redruth), CJ Boyce; Kye Beasley, Tom Cowan-Dickie (Redruth), Jon Drew, Jamie Prisk, Edd Pascoe (both Redruth), Adam Hughes, Jordan Nicholls, Hugo Culverhouse (Tonbridge Juddians). Replacements: Ben Priddey, Luke Barnes (Redruth), Sam Rodman, Pat Walton (Barnes), Ben Hancock (Bude), Chris Rovery (Redruth), Ben Plummer, Archie Bees (both St Austell).