WITH the holiday season behind them, it was time for the Munster junior rugby sides to emerge from their short hibernation and get back to what they do best – playing rugby.

The league campaigns took a back seat over the weekend as cup competitions came to the fore once again. Three local sides took to the field as Mallow, Fermoy and Kanturk all tried their luck in the Cork County Cup.

The latter made the trip to Kinsale while the first two had to play-off against each other.

Kanturk's trip to the seaside didn't turn out as they might have expected as Kinsale pulled off a big shock when putting the high flying north Cork outfit to the sword.

Renaud Sergere crossed the Kanturk try line on two occasions with team mates Joe Lyons and Paul Perez also touching down to give the home side the well deserved victory. Perez also rattled off three conversions and a penalty to inflict the heaviest defeat of the season on the J1 side.

Kanturk for their part had a single try from Dan Mccabe to celebrate as they slumped to the disappointing 29-5 loss.

Although it is never good to lose, it is fair to say that Kanturk won't be losing any sleep over this result as they will be focussing solely on the J1 crown – which is firmly within their sights.

High-flying division 2 leaders, Mallow, faced off against Fermoy on New year's Day with Mallow recording an impressive post Christmas win.

Both sides will have looked at this competition as a good chance of garnering some silverware come season's end with Mallow will also be fancying their chances of League success after starting tremendously well in their current league endeavours.

Fermoy for their part had a bad start to their J3 campaign but lately have been climbing up the table and as things stand they are far from out of that championship title race.

A dominant first half display had the winners in a 14-0 lead by the turn.

Michael O'flynn and Mike Sweeney notched up a try a piece as the home side showed too much class for their north Cork opponents. O'flynn rounded off the first 40 minutes' scoring as he added the extra points on both occasions.

The second period proved to be a real festival of scoring as both sides went for the win.

Leonard Browne, Neil Lucey, Robbie Doyle and Dave Walsh all touched down for the Mallow outfit with O'flynn showing he has an impressive boot by adding two more conversions.

Fermoy may have come up short in this clash with a very talented Mallow side but tries from Jim Mackesy and Jeff Daly helped Fermoy to garner an impressive 24 points in the second 40.

Shane O'riordan added the extra points on one occasion but also slotted over three penalties and a classy drop goal.

Fermoy will be disappointed to have left the competition at this stage but if they can build on the second half display – they might just manage to be in the shakeup when league honours are being decided upon next May.

Mallow, for their part, are proving to be one of the most impressive sides in the province this season and they will be more than a match for anyone in this cup competition as well as in the pivotal league campaign.

Kanturk's second side also failed to deliver last weekend as they were just edged out by a last minute Cork Constitution penalty in the Junior Two League South. 16-13 was the final score after both sides had been locked at 13 points apiece at the turn.

The same competition saw Muskerry lose at home by 27-8 against league leaders Old Christians.

- Diarmuid Sheehan