Devon joint-coach Graham Dawe was delighted with his team's County Championship away win over his former county Cornwall last weekend.

"Last year's loss at home to them really hurt us," Dawe said, after Devon's 31-17 win at Camborne. "Devon is a proud county and has been for many years. You need to win games like this for self respect."

Devon made a poor start, going down 12-0, but they used the new interchange replacement rule to switch their team around and get back into the match. Dawe, one of the players to come in the first half for Devon, said: "Fair play to Cornwall. They struck early and well. They looked a very pretty team, moved the ball around well, and had some nice plays. But we managed to turn them over a few times and Ed Lewsey and Tom Skelding made some big holes in their defence."

As for Devon's four first-half changes, Dawe said: "You would not readily make substitutions before half-time under normal replacement rules, but we had the wind and we wanted to make use of it while it was there.

"We were just looking to get some field position and we managed to get our drive game going. There were a few big performances, but you would expect that at this level."

Plymouth Albion's Dawe, who played more than 40 games for Cornwall, admitted he was shocked by the Camborne crowd's unsporting behaviour in chanting and booing while Gary Kingdom was kicking.

"I was a bit disappointed with the crowd booing Gary Kingdom's kicks at goals. There is no place for that in the game," said Dawe. "We did ask Cornwall to quiet them down, but to no avail. It was a shame, but I suppose the game has moved on from when I started playing."