HAS Rodrigo Pessoa managed the Irish team for the last time (in this current regime)? Pessoa’s contract expires at the end of season and the Brazilian may have plans to turn his attention back to his own career in the saddle.
His three-year reign has yielded some fantastic results – European gold in 2016, a Division 1 Nations Cup win at Hickstead in 2018, and finally, the job he came in to do – 2020 Olympic qualification. Some of the regrets for Pessoa might be that he never got the chance to lift the Aga Khan Trophy on home soil at the Dublin Horse Show, and the unexpected below par performance of his team at the 2019 European Championships in Rotterdam.
Pessoa was elated – and relieved – to win the FEI Nations Cup Final in Barcelona after a tough season. Speaking afterwards, he said: “I am really delighted and proud of them [the team] for what they did today.
“There are good days and bad days. The most important thing is that when the day that it really counts everyone sticks together and pulls the same way. If people can leave their personal issues on the side and really pull for the country, that’s what happens.”
Ireland was Pessoa’s first chef d’equipe job after an illustrious career in the saddle which included six consecutive Olympic Games appearences, heralding three medals. He still finds being on the ground a tough side of the job.
“When you are on the ground it’s much harder to live because you can’t do anything about it. For me, you need to have confidence that everything is going to go well and not think about the negative aspects. I think that we can never underestimate the amount of mental pressure that is on the riders.
“It has been a long time for Ireland, a great equestrian nation, to have been in the Olympics. And it was their responsibility to bring it home. For me, the most stressful was to feel what they felt, and how hard it must be for them to ride in these conditions.
“I feel that it was like nothing could stop them from achieving what they could achieve today,” he added.
Mission accomplished
Pessoa wouldn’t be drawn on his next move at the press conference following victory, but instead wanted the focus to be on the achievements of the team.
“Today it’s about the team, it’s about our organisation. We came with an objective very clear to win and get the ticket. Ireland is a great equestrian nation, we had already two disciplines qualified, show jumping was a little bit late to that party but we made the party and we had confidence that we could make the party and today that is all that matters.
“I was called in to do a job, and mission accomplished.
“As Cian said, you only won two classes in three years, but you won two good ones – Gothenburg and here!” he added, omitting the Hickstead Division 1 league.