CORNWALL took a giant step towards another county final with a comprehensive win against reigning champions Kent.

Nobody in the Cornwall camp will take anything for granted as there is still another 80 minutes to navigate next Saturday at Charlton Park in the return leg.

Sunshine and a large crowd of 2,568 bedecked in their black and gold colours greeted the Cornwall team led out by skipper Sam Matavesi on his home ground.

Despite a bright start by Kent, Cornwall were as clinical as the score suggests. It all began with a 50:22 by Josh Matavesi putting Cornwall on the front foot and from the ensuing catch and drive the ball went wide for Matavesi to finish what he’d started.

Kyle Moyle booted over the first of his nine conversions and Cornwall were on their way.

Next it was the turn of the forwards, good work from the mightily impressive Moyle and Shaun Buzza set up Kye Beasley for his try.

Moyle again was the provider when his strong run and final pass put the evergreen Matt Shepherd away to dot down in the corner.

The Cornish back row got through a huge amount of work with notably Herbie Stupple catching the eye with a man-of-the-match performance.

Tries came at regular intervals during the rest of the half with Tom Cowan-Dickie, Alex Ducker and Shepherd, again, putting Cornwall 45-0 up at the break.

Trelawny’s Army were already singing their heroes praises during half-time anticipating further scores in the second half, they were not disappointed.

Cornwall turned to the bench early in the second half, it didn’t diminish their performance. Two early tries from CJ Boyce kept the momentum going as they went for the jugular.

Kent, to their credit never gave up and were rewarded with a good try scored by skipper Sam Begbie, bettered by Jon Griffiths.

Into the final quarter Cornwall kept pushing with skipper Sam Matavesi wriggling over from close range.

Shepherd put in a try-saving tackle to keep Kent at bay, before Will Hennessy and Ducker scored either side of Mo Parganter grabbing Kent’s second try to complete the scoring.

Speaking after the match, Cornwall’s head coach Graham Dawe was satisfied with his side’s overall performance, saying: “I am pleased with the scoreline, it’s more than we dared hope for. It wasn’t all perfect, we gave away more penalties than I would have liked at the breakdown and tackle area.”

“But I thought our scrum performed well as did our driving maul, and our midfield created some great opportunities for our back three, even if we didn’t always make the most of those chances on the day.”

Looking ahead to the second leg, he concluded: “It’s a strange one really, we have to go into the game thinking it’s nil-nil and treat it like any other game, we have to prepare to face potentially a stronger side and work on the areas we were penalised this week.”

CORNWALL (Camborne, unless stated): Kyle Moyle; Matt Shepherd (St Austell), Max Bodilly (London Welsh), Josh Matavesi, Alex Ducker; Dean Wills (Redruth), CJ Boyce; Kye Beasley, Tom Cowan-Dickie (Redruth), Ben Watson; Mawgan Osborne, Edd Pascoe (both Redruth); Shaun Buzza, Sam Matavesi (capt), Herbie Stupple. Replacements: Archie Rolls, Pat Waton (Barnes), Sam Rodman, Ben Hancock (Launceston), Jordan Nicholls, Will Hennessy, Harry Larkins, Ben Priddey.

Tries: J Matavesi (5), Beasley (11), Shepherd (15, 38), Cowan Dickie (22), Ducker (33, 78), Boyce (43, 46), S Matavesi (62), Hennessy (72); Convs: Moyle (6, 12, 23, 39, 44, 47, 63, 73, 79); Pens: N/A.

Tribute man-of-the-match: Herbie Stupple (Cornwall).