LANCASHIRE claimed a record 18th win in the County Championship and denied Devon a hat-trick of successes with a remarkable win at Twickenham.

Even an appearance from stalwart Graham Dawe could not inspired Devon to recapture their first-half supremacy as Lancashire collected three tries through winger Jalo van der Venter, centre Freeman Payne and scrum-half Dave McCormack.

A brace of penalties from Gary Kingdom ensured that the game went to the wire, but Lancashire clung on for a famous 32-26 victory.

Double

The win was part of a sensational double for Lancashire coach Mark Nelson who was in the Sale backroom team for the Premiership final win against Leicester.

"It's unbelievable," he said.

"To be stood in the England changing room and win another trophy is simply fantastic especially after such a hard season.

"So far as the game was concerned, we tried to play too much rugby in the first-half, so we talked about getting back to the game with the plan we had talked about earlier.

"We knew we had the players to get the points if we played the territory and the phases and that's what happened."