Pres land prestigious schools rugby tournament with thrilling win over South African side
Cork's PBC celebrate winning the NextGen Global Schools Challenge Premier Rugby Series final in Salou on Thursday.
Presentation Brothers College landed a top schools rugby prize by beating South African side Grey College in Spain.
PBC, the first Cork school to take part, were crowned champions of Next Gen Global Schools Challenge Premier Rugby Series after a 34-17 success.
Led by talismanic captain Rian Macfarlane O’Shea, recently called up to the Irish U18 squad, alongside Bobby O'Callaghan, Tom Murray, Daniel Murphy and David Nolan, accepted the trophy on behalf of the large travelling support.
Coach Ger Burke was disappointed to lose the opening match 21-14 to South African powerhouse Oakdale on Sunday, but remained optimistic as they were without a number of key players through injury, including their captain O’Shea and vice-captain Frankie Óg Sheehan, son of former Irish international Frankie Sheehan.
They bounced back in the second group game on Tuesday, against Grey High. O'Shea showed his quality as he crashed over for the opening try and they drove on to win 42-0, including a brace of superb tries from deep by Bobby O’Callaghan and quality kicking from the unerring boot of Daniel Murphy.
Buoyed by Oakdale losing, Pres went into their final match with a shot at landing the trophy. By half-time against world-ranked number 13 Grey College, they were up 19-5, the highlight being another terrific try from O'Shea and they didn't ease up in the second half to prevail 34-17.
PBC are unbeaten so far in Munster Senior Cup, having lost last year's final to great rivals CBC, and will take a lot of stopping on this showing against some of the world's top schools. The likes of Eddie Dooley, Conor McLoughlin, Alex Foley and Diarmuid Sheehy, and the whole squad produced an expansive, fast-paced, aggressive style of rugby.
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