SCHOOLS RUGBY LEINSTER SENIOR CUP/Pres Bray 12 Newbridge College 10:A NERVELESS 43-metre penalty by fullback Dermot Masterson five minutes into injury time at Templeville Road sent Pres Bray through to the Leinster Schools Senior Cup quarter-final yesterday. It was unclear from television replays whether the ball had definitely cleared the crossbar but the assistant referees awarded the score and Pres were through.

It had looked long odds against that when Newbridge left wing Phil O’Neill powered over in the 73rd minute for what looked like the winning try and even more unlikely from the restart when Newbridge replacement hooker Colin Grant ripped the ball free to drive into midfield.

But Pres competed like dervishes at the breakdown to force a penalty and Masterson put two first-half misses out of his mind to strike his fourth three-pointer.

Earlier, sweet handling from Newbridge outhalf Mark Sutton and scrumhalf Robbie Mullen created the space for Jonathan Phelan to squeeze in at the corner for a 5-0 lead in the 16th minute.

From there, Pres were driven relentlessly forward by their captain Kenneth Murphy. Masterson reduced the gap in the 43rd minute, smacking over two more penalties in the 51st and 56th minutes to take Pres four points clear.

This was the signal for O’Neill to pop up on the right for a power-packed finish into the corner. It looked too late for a response. It wasn’t.

PRESENTATION COLLEGE: D Masterson; J Keating, D Henderson, J Curran, R Brennan; P Haughton, J Traynor; K Murphy (capt), C Ó Meadhra, C Pearse, J Hayes, G Peakin, L O’Flynn-Martin, C O’Donoghue, D Doyle. Replacements: A Stapleton for Ó Meadhra (43 mins); D Cassidy for Keating, A Conway for Brennan (both 65 mins).

NEWBRIDGE: D O’Loughlin; I Briody, C Ryan (capt), 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 mins); C Grant for B O’Donnell (57 mins).

Referee: E Kenny (Leinster Branch).