Masterson delivers at the death

A superb 43-metre penalty by full-back Dermot Masterson five minutes into injury-time sent Pres Bray through to the Leinster Schools Senior Cup quarter-final at Templeville Road yesterday.

It looked long odds against such an outcome when Newbridge left wing Phil O’Neill powered over in the 73rd minute for a try but the Bray side remained composed, forced a penalty and Masterson did the rest.

Earlier, good work from Newbridge fly-half Mark Sutton and scrum-half Robbie Mullen set up Jonathan Phelan for a 16th minute try.

From there, Pres were driven relentlessly by captain Kenneth Murphy. They missed three kicks before Masterson reduced the gap in the 43rd minute, smacking over two more penalties in the 51st and 56th minutes to take his side four clear.

O’Neill looked to have snatched a winner before Masterson kept his nerve late on.

Scorers for Pres Bray: (D Masterson 4 pens)

Scorers for Newbridge College: (J Phelan, P O’Neill try each).

PRES BRAY: D Masterson; J Keating, D Henderson, J Curran, R Brennan; P Haughton, J Traynor; K Murphy (c), C O’Meadhra, C Pearse, J Hayes, G Peakin, L O’Flynn-Martin, C O’Donoghue, D Doyle.

Replacements: A Stapleton for O’Meadhra (43); D Cassidy for Keating, A Conway for Brennan, (both 65).

NEWBRIDGE: D O’Loughlin; I Briody, C Ryan (c), G Burns, P O’Neill; M Sutton, R Mullen; J Phelan, C Murphy, B O’Donnell, S O’Rourke, B Scully, M Kavanagh, O McKnight, R Snell.

Replacements: H O’Donnell for Kavanagh, J Coghlan-Murray for Ryan, B Delaney for Briody, C Healy for O’Loughlin, (all 52); C Grant for B O’Donnell (57)

Referee: E Kenny, Leinster Branch.