THERE was agony for the Cornwall Under 20s side on Sunday as Devon beat them with the last kick of the game.

Fly-half Matt Grieveson held his nerve to send a penalty between the posts to hand a 31-29 victory to the hosts at Ivybridge and give them top spot in their National U20s Championship group.

It means they will also have a home quarter final while Cornwall will have to play their next game in the competition away in Kent.

Proceedings for this South West derby were feisty with referee Charlie Gayther having to pull his yellow card out seven times.

Devon went 9-0 up inside the opening quarter of the tie with starting fly-half Will Castleton hitting three penalties home.

In the same time period, Cornwall saw two players sin-binned with Sam Fox spending ten minutes on the side for a late tackle and prop Tommy Phillips also being disciplined for a tip tackle.

Improvements were made by the Duchy though as captain Todd Prisk dived over the whitewash, but Pirates Amateurs’ Rhys Brownfield was unable to convert the Redruth lock’s score.

The home side then opened up an 11 point lead when winger Corey Whane sliced through a poorly defended line with Castleton adding the extras.

Just before the half time whistle was blown, Cornwall closed the gap to four as Penryn’s Adam Hughes dotted the ball down as a solid driving maul pushed him over.

Brownfield’s successful conversion made the score 16-12 at the break.

Shortly after the restart, home prop Ashley Crouch became the first of two sin-binned Devon players after Gayther spotted an offence at the scrum.

Cornwall made the most of this advantage to barge over the try-line twice in his absence.

Hughes doubled his tally for the day before centre Jack Simmons, from Hartpury College, also darted over after neat work by Ashley Taylor opened up Devon’s defence.

Conversions from both by Brownfield put the Cornish 26-16 ahead.

More yellow cards were dished out as John Tyler and Sam Furse from Cornwall and Will Cole for the hosts spent ten minutes off the field, meaning the match finished as a tense 14 against 13 Devon came roaring back with their extra man on the field as Jack Ferguson and Keir Murphy both went over for them to make the score 28-26.

An obstruction call from the second restart handed Brownfield the chance to put Cornwall back in front with a penalty kick, which he duly slotted home.

Sadly there was heartbreak right at the death as Cornish All Blacks flanker John Haines seeing yellow in the final play as he occurred the wrath of Gayther at a ruck.

Replacement Grieveson did not bottle the opportunity to secure the victory.

CORNWALL: 15 Eley (Truro), 14 Thomas (Redruth), 13 Simmons (Hartpury College), 12 Brownfield (Pirates Amateurs), 11 Sandercock (Cornish All Blacks), 10 Fox (Wadebridge Camels), 9 Rutter (Redruth); 1 Phillips (Redruth), 2 Martin (Truro), 3 Tyack (St Ives), 4 Prisk (c, Redruth), 5 Marsh (Truro), 6 Hughes (Penryn), 7 Haines (Cornish All Blacks), 8 Stanleick (Camborne).

REPS: Furse (Newquay Hornets), Smith (Redruth), Southworth (Redruth), Pellow (Penryn), Taylor (unattached), Stevens (Hayle), Tyler (Penzance & Newlyn Colts).

TRIES: Prisk, Hughes (2), Simmons.

CONS: Brownfield 3/4.

PEN: Brownfield.

SIN-BIN: Fox (9), Phillips (20), Tyler (73), Furse (74), Haines (80+7).