CORNWALL’S head coach Graham Dawe said he wants the senior side to “step up their performance” and bring home the Bill Beaumont Cup this year.

The last two years have seen the Duchy travel to Twickenham for the showpiece final, only to lose on both occasions to Lancashire.

Former England international Dawe said tinkering will be done to get the changes needed for Cornwall to end 16 years of hurt and bring home the County Championship.

He added a lot of this will be down to the players, with a training squad of 40 put together as preparations build-up for the campaign which starts on May 9 in Gloucestershire.

Dawe said: “We have got as big a squad as we feel we can bring at this stage.

“What I want to install in them is that they need to use the rest of the season as a mini pre-season for the championship that they go into with their teams and their mates.

“Between now and then, they need to raise the level of their performance, which is obviously easily said but hard to do with their club commitments.

“After last season, I said I wanted to see the players train with a higher intensity and I hope they have taken that on board.

“It is a good opportunity for the players and it will be interesting to see how the players who don’t get picked react, because you always want more than the 22 to call on over the campaign.”

Looking at the current training squad, assistant coach Ian Morgan believes improvements have already been made by plenty of the men involved last season.

He also believes the hunger for glory is flowing around the players.

“We need to go one step further this season and we think we know where we went short and can counteract that this time round,” he said.

“There is no point of going to Twickenham if you are not going to win.

“I think a lot of the team still in from last year are looking fitter already and are in good physical shape while the younger guys will have their own natural fitness.

“No one wants to go and lose again, especially after the position we were in last year when we were up at half time, so I think the desire is there.

“At every dinner and dance you go to, all you hear is about the 1991 County Championship winning side or the 1999 winning team, so for these guys to become known as the 2015 winning side would be special.”

A decision on who will captain this season’s cohort is still to be made, although the two stand-out names are Cornish All Blacks lock Ben Hilton and Redruth number eight Kyle Marriott.

Hilton led Cornwall in the last two campaigns which have ended in 35-26 and 36-26 defeat at the hands of Lancashire and was in the England Counties squad who played the Scotland Club XV on Friday.

Marriot signed at the Rec in the summer after failing to make an appearance with the Cornish Pirates due to a knee injury and has also played professionally for Plymouth Albion.

Discussing the captaincy possibilities, Dawe said: “We’ve got to give it some thought.

“Kyle Marriott has a great understanding of the game and when he talks, players listen, he talks a lot of sense and talks well.

“I have also spoken to Ben Hilton, who is not with our squad at the moment but will come into the reckoning.

“He is probably the front runner at the moment because of the last two seasons, but it all depends on what other second rows are available.

“The captain obviously has to be someone who is sure to start every game and we need to make sure Ben isn’t a shoe in, we need to put the best team out.”