SALTASH will be looking to put their disappointment of narrowly missing out on reaching Twickenham behind them when they play Perranporth on Saturday at Launceston in the final of the Cornwall Clubs’ Cup (3pm).

If things were different, the Ashes could have been running out at Twickenham this weekend instead of Polson Bridge, but they were agonisingly beaten 37-31 by Old Rutlishians in a thrilling Papa Johns Community Cup semi-final last Saturday.

Although they would no doubt have preferred to have been in the national cup final instead of the Cornwall Clubs’ one, they are determined to try and end their season with some silverware after finishing as runners-up in Counties Two Cornwall and in the Lockie Cup.

“It is something to play for,” said Saltash head coach Steve Down.

“I suppose it’s a bit of a consolation prize, but it’s something we can enjoy and throw everything at it.

“Hopefully, the sun will shine, we can have a nice day out and bring home some silverware.

“We seem to be runners-up at the moment and we need to turn our fortunes around a little bit.”

He added: “I think the lads are motivated to bring home some silverware. The disappointment of the (Papa Johns) cup run will hopefully feature in a positive way and be a motivation and it won’t be a hangover.”

Last week’s national cup semi-final was tight and Saltash did push Old Rutlishians right to the death. The Surrey champions had scored more than 70 points in two of their three previous rounds of the cup.

“You could see why as they had a really electric backline and when they got loose, they were unstoppable,” said Down.

“But I was quite pleased with the way the lads actually managed the game as we knew where they were strong – right from the off they showed us that. We took it to them up front and we managed them well for long periods of the game, but unfortunately when they did get loose and got it into the wider channels, they were very difficult to stop.

“Ironically, it’s what we have done to some other teams, but we had it done to us a little bit. However, I was really proud of the lads and proud of the effort. We didn’t give up at all. We had to keep fighting back into the game, but the second comeback just wasn’t quite enough.

“We had some good stand-out performances from individuals and it was a really good team effort. Everyone was working really, really hard to try and get there (to Twickenham), but it just wasn’t to be on the day.”

The Ashes will certainly not be taking Perranporth lightly. The two teams also met in the same county cup final last year, with Saltash winning 47-26 at Wadebridge.

“It will be the fourth time we have played them in 12 months as we played them also in this fixture last year. They are not a bad side,” said Down.

“When we played them down there (in the league), they were good. They had the wind first half and they were actually ahead, but we turned around and when we had the wind we put on more points than they did with it in the first half.

“But at our place they didn’t really give us as much of a challenge, so it will be interesting to see on a neutral ground what it brings.

“We’ll expect them to come strong and we’ll do our utmost to finish our season on a high.”

Saltash basically keep the same squad as last week, but James Sutton and Jason Carroll come into the starting line-up.