A THRILLING and classic Nations Cup competition in Falsterbo, Sweden, saw a strong Irish team take the runner-up spot behind The Netherlands to boost their standings in the overall European Division league.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the Dutch as they were reduced to a three-man team following the elimination of Michael Hendrix. The Irish team got off to the perfect start when Bertram Allen jumped clear when first into the ring with Gin Chin van Het Lindenhof, followed by a clear from Mark McAuley with Utchan de Belheme.
Daniel Coyle collected an uncharacteristic 12 faults with Cita, before Paul O’Shea pulled another clear out of the bag with Skara Glen’s Machu Picchu to leave the team out in from at the half way stage on zero penalties.
Their advantage started to slip in the second round when Allen had a foot in the water and a fence fell for McAuley. However, Coyle redeemed himself with a perfect clear round and O’Shea was brilliant to produce Ireland’s only double clear round to led to a four-way jump-off with Italy, Sweden and The Netherlands. Pessoa choose the ultra-fast Coyle to contest the jump-off.
Coyle was the last man in and gave it his best shot with Cita who broke the beam in 40.47 seconds for runner-up spot.
“We had a good first round and we were getting pressurized in the second round from several teams: Italy, Netherlands and Sweden. Our last two riders were really solid,” chef d’equipe Rodrigo Pessoa said afterwards.
“Daniel gave it a fair try in the jump-off. The Dutch rider gave it all or nothing to take the win. All our guys did a great job today. This was a good way to start this triple-header. We move now to Aachen on Thursday. We head there with a fresh squad and although it is not part of the league, it will be an important Nations Cup for us to build confidence.”
The team then jump at the point-scoring leg in Hickstead before the Aga Khan Nations Cup at the Dublin Horse Show on Friday, August 10th. Ireland lie eighth from 10 teams in the current Divison 1 standings with two counting legs to go.