CORNWALL’S triumph at Twickenham in winning the Bill Beaumont Cup ensured huge interest from the membership in choosing this season’s player of the year.

There were no shortage of candidates in the running for the Cornwall Senior Player of the Year award but in the end voting was pretty well unanimous for the winner, former Cornish All Black scrum-half Matt Shepherd, now with Graham Dawe’s Plymouth Albion.

Shepherd a product of the St Austell club, previously had a spell with Redruth at National League level before re-joining St Austell, guiding them to promotion to South West One West, plus a second Cornwall Knock Out Cup final in 2014, where they lost to Camborne.

He joined Launceston last season to improve his game and that led him to having a campaign to remember.

He picked up the Paul Bawden trophy as man-of-the-match in Cornwall’s Tamar Cup win against Devon, the first player to win that particular accolade twice.

He then help mastermind Cornwall’s assault on Twickenham, scoring four tries during the Championship, including two in the final and kicked a total of forty-two points.

Shepherd’s exploits last May saw him fully deserve his selection by England Counties for the tour to Romania.

Matt’s father Bernie received the award on Matt’s behalf on Wednesday evening at the end of the TASC AGM as he was unable to attend.

The Tony Mead Memorial Shield for the Cornwall U20 Player of the Year went to loose-head prop forward Tommy Phillips, who spent last season at Redruth having joined the club from Truro College.