Cornwall 41 Hertfordshire 29
Cornwall reached the County Championship final at Twickenham for the first time in 14 years with a thrilling victory over reigning champions Hertfordshire, writes Nigel Walrond.
The Black and Golds will face Lancashire at Rugby Headquarters on Sunday week, May 26.
A superb crowd of around 3,000 people soaked up the sunshine at the Camborne Rec in a hark back to the glory days of Cornish county rugby.
Cornwall opted to play up the slope in the first half and trailed 17-12 at the break, with tries by Sam Hocking - his third in three games - and Greg Goodfellow, cancelled out by touchdowns for the visitors from Sam Winter and Stefan Liebenberg.
Two tries in the space of four minutes early in the second half, by Cornish All Blacks team-mates Richard Bright and Jake Murphy, put Cornwall firmly in the driving seat.
But Hertfordshire refused to give up their crown without a fight, with Liebenberg scoring tries either side of a penalty try for Cornwall to complete his hat-trick, to make it 34-29 to the hosts and set up a dramatic finale.
However, an injury-time try by Paul Thirlby, which he converted himself, sealed victory for the Black and Golds to send them to English rugby headquarters for the first time since the 2008 County Shield final.
Cornwall (Redruth unless stated): Murphy (Cornish All Blacks), Bright (All Blacks), Johns (Coventry), Webber (All Blacks), McAtee (Plymouth Alb), Thirlby, Goodfellow, Jacques, Brown, C Williams, Cook, Hilton (All Blacks, capt), Fuca, Hocking (Plymouth Alb), BJ Chapman (All Blacks).
Replacements: Paterson (All Blacks) for Webber 54, T Rawlings (All Blacks) for Chapman 54, Shepherd (St Austell) for Goodfellow 80+5, Lawton (Camborne) for Cook 80+5, Notman for McAtee 80+5. Not used: Priddey, Drew.
Hertfordshire (Old Albanian unless stated): Gregg, Newton (Tring), Winter (Bishop's Stortford), Regan, Speirs, Shanahan, Liebenberg, Remfry (Barnes), Saunders (Saracens), Staff, Hamilton, South (Hertford), McNamee (capt), Fahrenheim, Chambers.
Replacements: McDougall for Chambers 36, Chennels (Tring) for McDougall 40+9, Abraham for South 31, Chambers for Saunders 40, Schillaci for Staff ht. Not used: Hughes, Mowbray (Chinnor), Tausaosi (Tring).
Referee: Shane Lewis (RFU).
Cornwall: Tries: Hocking, Goodfellow, Bright, Murphy, penalty try, Thirlby; Cons: Thirlby (3); Pen: Thirlby.
Herts: Tries: Winter, Liebenberg (3); Cons: Gregg (2), Speirs; Pen: Gregg.
Yellow cards - Herts: Gregg 35.
