CORNWALL head coach Dave "Benji" Thomas felt that Devon were good value for their victory at Camborne.

He said: "It was a well deserved win by Devon, who played very well and were very well organised up front.

"We started very well with good intensity but they made changes and brought Graham Dawe on to organise their pack. They had some big, physical men and moving Lewsey to scrum-half made a huge difference to their patterns and we couldn't cope with that."

Thomas (pictured) agreed that the new rolling replacements law did have an impact on the match. He said: "We settled in the first half and didn't make too many early changes because we wanted to bed the team in. Devon made a lot more changes and altered their whole playing pattern. That changed the complex of the game."

Looking ahead to Saturday's trip to face Hertfordshire he said: "I hope that we will not meet such a big physical pack up there. In this game the boys played really well in the first 20 minutes, but when you are playing against such a big pack you need to bring the strike runners down immediately and not pull them down.

"They were getting across the gain line and when that happens you have really got a problem, because it brings the rest of the team in behind.

Top class

"So our first time tackles have got to be much more effective but other than that we scrummaged well and won our own lineout ball. But we were up against a big side with a lot of players who have been in top class rugby all season, a level above the Cornish boys. Maybe that was a telling factor."

Cornwall skipper Mark Richards remained defiant. The Redruth scrum-half said: "I've just told the boys in the huddle that our Championship is not over. Gloucestershire are a hard side and I think Devon will lose a game, so we have just got to carry on playing and not worry about other results.

"We started off well and caught Devon a bit cold. They had a few youngsters out there but with the new rolling substitutions they brought a few old heads on and used that ruling very well. It was like playing against Plymouth Albion again!"