Cornwall’s county championship win was overshadowed by Josh Matavesi’s ineligibility

Cornwall will have to play this year’s County Championship campaign without former Fiji defender Josh Matavesi after he was declared ineligible for the Bill Beaumont Cup.

The 33-year-old has played much of this season at hometown club Camborne, before a spell at the Red Hurricanes in Osaka.

But the move abroad has made the former Bath, Exeter, Worcester and Racing metro player ineligible despite training with the county side.

Cornwall ran out 55-0 winners over Surrey in their opening game on Saturday.

“He chose to have the opportunity to go back to Japan, just for a couple of games, a little while ago and then he wanted to re-register for Camborne,” Cornwall chairman of selectors Kevin Thomas told BBC Radio Cornwall.

“We’ve been working pretty steadily with the RFU over a period of two or three days looking at the laws and regulations and unfortunately they’re very clear that once you leave our union you’re playing outside the English union if you want to come back . then you had to be back by March 1st.