What is it about Highfields and the Cornwall rugby team?

Three times they have played at Hertfordshire's home ground in the past five seasons. On each occasion the match has been a thriller, Cornwall have played some excellent rugby, and also seemed hell-bent on pressing the self-destruct button.

In 2006 and 2008, the Duchy failed to get away with it, going down to embarrassing 31-27 and 31-26 defeats respectively, but at least this time they came out on the right side of a 32-30 points feast in the Hertfordshire countryside to keep alive their hopes of reaching the Bill Beaumont Cup final at Twickenham.

Cornwall were cruising to victory when they led 17-3 after a dominant 34-minute opening period, reflecting the two-division gulf between the clubs the majority of the players on each side were drawn from.

However, give Hertfordshire a sniff at Highfields, and they suddenly seem to turn into a completely different proposition.

That was the case on Saturday when, aided by a yellow card for Cornwall flanker Tom Rawlings in the 39th minute, they transformed a 14-point deficit into a 25-17 lead only six minutes into the second period.

They still had their noses in front at 30-25 going into injury time, but a try by Redruth No.8 Mark Bright, converted by St Ives fly-half Ian Morgan, saved the day for Cornwall.

They now need to beat Gloucestershire by at least a 25-point margin at Redruth on Saturday to reach the Cup final, while at the same time hoping Devon do not manage a big win in Hertfordshire.

A man of Cornwall head coach Dave 'Benji' Thomas's fine vintage should not have to go through such a stressful afternoon, and he admitted he felt he had "aged 20 years in the last ten minutes of the game", but he was happy with the final outcome.

"The Hertfordshire players really played out of their skins. They have got some astute backs and they scored a couple of really cracking tries," said Thomas, "but my biggest quibble is that the man in the middle never refereed the breakdown.

"When we were playing down the slope with the wind in the first half, we wanted to get our hands on the ball to set up our driving play, but we couldn't do it because they killed the ball.

"It wasn't until the last ten minutes that the referee picked it up and yellow-carded two of their players, and that made the difference, but, if he had actually refereed that area properly beforehand, I think it would have been a different scenario."

After an early exchange of penalties between eventual match winner Morgan, who was called out of retirement for the game, and his opposite number Richard Gregg, it was all Cornwall for half an hour.

Josh Matavesi, Ryan Westren, Pale Nonu and the Cornwall back row were repeatedly punching holes in the Hertfordshire defence, but several glorious scoring opportunities went begging.

The onslaught finally told when skipper and scrum-half Mark Richards squeezed over after a five-metre scrum in the 30th minute, and, four minutes later, a superb break by Matavesi and a delightful pass out of the back of his hand sent Bright in for his first try, with Morgan converting both for a 17-3 lead.

Trelawny's Army were eyeing a cricket score, but the Highfields factor then kicked in. With Rawlings sin-binned for a professional foul after a burst by former Leicester flanker Paul Gustard, the hosts came storming back with tries by winger Ian Crompton and lock Billy Johnson in the space of four minutes, with Gregg converting one to leave them only trailing 17-15 at the break.

Gregg's simple drop goal put them ahead in the 43rd minute, and he then created and converted Crompton's second try for an eight-point lead.

Morgan banged over a sweet 40-metre penalty to get Cornwall back into it, and, when winger Rob Thirlby showed his class to beat a defender and cross in the corner, the scores were level.

However, Thirlby then turned from hero to villain as his missed tackle allowed Crompton to complete his hat-trick to make it 30-25 with 14 minutes left.

Cornwall piled on the pressure, and referee Paul Knowles finally lost patience with the hosts, sin-binning winger Handre Schmidt and Gustard in the space of five minutes.

The Duchy capitalised with Bright's second try in the second minute of injury time, and Morgan called on all of his experience to slot the conversion and seal a dramatic win.

Hertfordshire: T Newton (Tring); H Schmidt (Cambridge), S Smart (Hertfordshire), S Ellis (Hertfordshire), I Crompton (Stevenage Town); R Gregg (Old Albanian), M Evans (Old Albanian); A Gelman (Old Albanian), C Hughes (Old Albanian), R Schillaci (Hertfordshire); B Johnson (Hertfordshire's), R Dumbleton (Harpenden); I Hardcastle (Hertford), P Gustard (Old Albanian), D Archer (Cambridge, capt).

Replacements (used): J Van Dyke (Old Ashmolean) , J Remfrey (Caldy), A MacDougall (Hemel Hempstead), A Church (Hertford), W Temperley (Luton), M Thompson (Ealing), R Adde (Hemel Hempstead).

Yellow Cards: Schmidt, Gustard

Tries – Crompton (3), Johnson; Conversion – Gregg (2); Penalty – Gregg; Drop-Goal – Gregg.

Cornwall: J Matavesi (Exeter Chiefs); R Thirlby (Moseley), R Westren (Cornish All Blacks), P Nonu (Camborne), C Bonds (Redruth); I Morgan (St Ives), M Richards (Redruth, capt); D Jacques (Redruth), O Hambly (Redruth), P Joyce (Redruth); B Hilton (Cornish All Blacks), D Cook (Redruth); M Rawlings (Cornish All Blacks), T Rawlings (Cornish All Blacks), M Bright (Redruth).

Replacements (used): A Morcom (Newquay Hornets), L Collins, J Lord (Cornish All Blacks), L Webb (Cornish All Blacks), P Thirlby (Redruth). (not used): T Notman (Camborne), D Clackworthy (Hayle).

Yellow Card: T Rawlings

Tries – Richards, Bright (2), R Thirlby; Conversions – Morgan (3); Penalties – Morgan (2).

Referee: P Knowles (RFU).