LEICESTERSHIRE stand between Cumbria and a return trip to Twickenham - this time in the County Championship Shield.

Cumbria won the main County Championship title in 1997 and although the current Shield surroundings are more humble they blitzed Notts, Lincs and Derby 63-27 at Mansfield to complete their group with a 100% record.

Penrith centre Mike Hawley was the chief beneficiary of Cumbria's dominance, scoring four tries, while his club-mate Steve Wood, returning at fly-half after injury,. kicked five conversions and a penalty to cement the success.

Semi-final opponents Leicestershire had followed-up a 33-12 home win over Oxfordshire with a 44-13 victory at Peterborough against East Midlands.

The semi-final will be played this coming Saturday with the final at Twickenham on Sunday, May 30.

Delighted Cumbria team manager Mark Richardson said: “We owe Leicestershire one really because we went there last year and played very poorly. I’m confident we will give a better account of ourselves this time.

“We started brightly at Mansfield and were 14-0 up in as many minutes but then we seemed to go off the boil and a few errors crept in.

“We were trailing 20-17 at half-time and they had been the better team in the 20 minutes leading to half-time. When they scored the first try of the second-half it looked a bit ominous.

“But our coach Dan Bowman had rallied the troops at half-time and they came back from that reversal to play some outstanding rugby. It really was champagne stuff in the second-half. We went on to score 46 unanswered points.

“I’ve seen Steve Wood play a lot of rugby over the years but I have never seen him play as well as this. He gave a mature, outstanding exhibition of controlling fly-half play.

“You shouldn’t really pick-out individuals in what was essentially an outstanding team performance but as well as Woody, Ryan Johnson was awesome in the back row.

“We were all pretty optimistic when we saw the squad come together and it really would be terrific if we could go all the way to Twickenham.”

Cumbria had taken an early lead when Rob Dawson charged over from close range after good work by the forwards.

That advantage was doubled when Hawley finished-off well after the ball had been moved smartly between forwards and backs. Wood converted both.

But Notts, Lincs and Derby came back with two converted tries themselves to draw level and they also kicked two penalties, while all Cumbria could manage was a Wood penalty to trail 20-17 at the break.

Cumbria had lost Bowman with a badly cut mouth in the first quarter of the game but he was still able to administer a half-time talk of Agincourt proportions.

For when the Three Counties scored a third converted try within minutes of the restart Cumbria threw away the shackles and produced some exhilarating rugby to take their hosts apart.

Andrew Bowe set Cumbria in motion when he got over for an unconverted try and then Hawley scored twice in a minute, the first converted by Wood to leave the visitors 34-27 to the good.

From that point they just grew in confidence and simply ran away with the game.

Joe Nattrass, Graeme Andrews (2), Hawley (his fourth) and Sandy Kerridge all crossed to pile on the misery for the Three Counties. Wood converted two of them.

Results on Saturday - Pool 1 - East Midlands 13 Leicestershire 44 (at Peterborough RFC), Oxfordshire 34 Essex 27 (at Chinnor RFC). Pool 2 - Notts, Lincs & Derby 27 Cumbria 63 (at Mansfield RFC). Pool 3 - Sussex 13 Dorset & Wilts 42 (at Lewes RFC), Buckinghamshire 24 Berkshire 27 (at Marlow RFC).

DAVID NATTRASS was our man on the spot at Mansfield and as usual he was spot-on with eight of the ten Cumbrian tries for your chance to savour. From the top they are Mike Hawley, Rob Dawson, Andrew Bowe, Mike Hawley, Mike Hawley, Joe Nattrass, Graeme Andrews and Mike Hawley again for his fourth.

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