Caitriona Murphy

IRELAND’s show jumpers will have their sights set on the Aga Khan trophy in Dublin in two weeks’ time as the team sits in sixth place in the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup league on 152.50 points.

The team has now completed two of its four points-scoring rounds but has yet to be allocated points for the Lummen leg which was cancelled.

Dublin Horse Show is the fourth and final points-scoring round for Ireland.

The Netherlands is way out in front on the league leaderboard at present, with 335 points and all four points-scoring rounds completed.

Switzerland (245), Sweden (235), France (215) and Britain (200) have all completed three of their four points-scoring rounds.

Ireland lies in sixth place currently (152.50), followed by Germany (135) and Belgium (100).

The Czech Republic lies on 90 with two rounds complete and Italy has 47.50 league points after just one of its four points-scoring rounds.

The top eight teams in the league will go forward to the final in Barcelona on September 24th.

Ireland’s team for the crucial Dublin round of the league has not yet been announced but it is expected that it may include some of the St Gallen-winning team Bertram Allen, Greg Broderick, Denis Lynch and Cian O’Connor.

However team manager Robert Splaine may decide that the Rio-bound combination of Broderick and MHS Going Global would be better served by jumping in smaller classes at Dublin. The Aga Khan team announcement is not expected until next week at the earliest.