KANTURK'S Junior A rugby team's great winning streak came to an end last Sunday when they suffered a rare defeat away to Crosshaven on a scoreline of Crosshaven 23, Kanturk 14.

Kanturk scored the first try when Johnny O'sullivan received a lovely pass from Paul Cotter and raced in to touch down unchallenged. Darragh Meade was successful with the conversion. Kanturk failed to take the kick off and were then under pressure.

Two turnovers before half time gave Crosshaven two tries, which they converted.

Playing with the hill and a strong wind in the second half, Kanturk should have a great advantage but it was not to be, a couple of missed kicks and a few weak tackles saw Crosshaven scoring two more tries and winning a bonus point.

In injury time Kanturk scored a good try by 'Frenchy', duly converted by Darragh Meade but it was too late to make a difference and Kanturk were three points short of a losing bonus point.

Another difficult game is in prospect again next Sunday, away to Waterpark at 2.30pm.

The Kanturk second team had a muchimproved performance last weekend and were narrowly beaten 7points to nil away at Old Christians. They are developing into a very good team who will get some good results before the end of the season.

On the very bright note the under-17s had the performance of the year so far beating Bandon 15–8 in a very tough hard fought game, which sees them in to the play-offs.

The under-19s had a good win over Tralee in a friendly. Congratulations to all the underage teams and their excellent coaches.

UNDERAGE RUGBY — UNDER-17S: KANTURK 15, BANDON 8

THE under-17s hosted Bandon in a crucial tie last Saturday morning to decide their fate in the regular league and their qualification for the pan Munster League.

Due to the loss of key players due to injury this contest was the ultimate test of the strength and depth of the squad. After a rocky opening period where the visitors contested and often dominated the exchanges, the deadlock was finally broken when Paul O'keeffe finished off a snipping run and finished in the corner. Bandon replied shortly after with a penalty following a period of pressure to the Kanturk line.

However, Kanturk were now beginning to shake off the rustiness from the Christmas break and were becoming more dominant up front, following some superb work from the forwards in particular Ciaran Boyce, Conor O'sullivan and Denis O'sullivan, centre Billy O'gorman crossed for a try to leave the score 10–3 at the short whistle.

The second half offered the home team the chance to dominate possession and this they did to great effect through their forwards who put together some great phases to deny Bandon any quality possession. Eventually Kanturk's pressure paid off when Paul O'connor crashed over for the decisive score to leave the score 15-3 going into the last ten minutes. Bandon to be fair did not fade out of the game and threw everything at the Kanturk defence to score their only try with minutes left, some resolute defending however meant Kanturk closed out the game and qualified for the South Munster league semi final and ensured pan Munster qualification. Team: R O'brien, C Moylan, A O'brien, B O'gorman, J Sherlock, P O'keeffe, C O'keeffe, J Mcauliffe, D O'donoghue, D O'sullivan, N Harman, P O Connor, E Breen, C Boyce, C O'sullivan. Replacements, M O'brien, S O'callaghan, T Murphy, J Bradley, M

O'sullivan.

KANTURK'S under-17s face Ennis in the first round of the Avonmore Milk Under-17 Munster league at home on Saturday at 11.30am.

Qualification for this tournament means Kanturk RFC will be taking part for the second year in a row in a competition, which brings together the top teams in Munster.

With Kanturk's under19s, having already ensured their participation in their equivalent competition it means a feast of top level rugby will be available for supporters in 2012. All support appreciated.