IRISH show jumping team manager Rodrigo Pessoa has named his team, sponsored by The Underwriting Exchange and Devenish, for tomorrow’s (Friday) all-important fifth round of the FEI Super League Nations Cup, which takes place at Rotterdam in The Netherlands. Rotterdam is Ireland’s third of six points-scoring rounds in Europe Division 1, with Pessoa hoping for a good result as Ireland bid to qualify for the Nations Cup world final in Barcelona later this year.

Ireland have been drawn third to jump of eight teams taking part and will line out as follows:

Shane Breen riding Golden Hawk – Owned by P. Sultan & Breen Equestrian Ltd. & Shane Breen

Darragh Kenny riding Charly Chaplin S – Owned by Kerry Anne McCahill

Bertram Allen riding Hector Van d’Abdijhoeve – Owned by Noel Delahunty Connaught Bloodstock

Cian O’Connor riding Good Luck – Owned by Adena Springs & Ronnoco Jump Ltd

Speaking ahead of the Dutch Nations Cup, Rodrigo Pessoa said: “I am very happy with the team we have here in Rotterdam and we are really looking forward to a strong performance. The horses all look in good form and we hope to have a positive result and to do our talking in the ring. We have seven teams chasing points here and all these Nations Cup competitions are very competitive.”

Along with Ireland, teams from Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain and the home team from The Netherlands will all be competing for points in Rotterdam. Current league leaders France will also field a team but this will not be one of their points-scoring rounds. Ireland have won the Dutch Nations Cup four times since its first running in 1948, with the most recent Irish victory coming 17 years ago.

The Rotterdam Nations Cup starts at 2pm Irish time and is available to watch live on FEITV, with live updates during the competition on Team Ireland Equestrian Facebook and Twitter.

Following Rotterdam, Ireland’s remaining Super League fixtures will be at Falsterbo (July 14th), Hickstead (July 28th), and Ireland’s home Nations Cup at the RDS in Dublin (August 11th) where teams will compete for the Aga Khan trophy.