THE Irish team of Mark McAuley, Peter Moloney, Darragh Kenny and Cian O’Connor came very close to winning the Rome Nations Cup for the first time ever in its 93-year history yesterday, but eventually had to settle for second place behind Sweden.

Led by chef d’equipe Michael Blake, a brilliant performance from a team of horses with mixed experience at this level finished on 12 faults behind the Swedish team of Henrik von Eckermann, Angelie von Essen, Fredrick Jonsson and Peder Fredricson on eight faults.

Louth’s Mark McAuley was first to go with his championship hopeful, the 10-year-old French-bred gelding Jasco VD Bisschop (Dulf van den Bisschop x Krunch de Breve), owned by Eva Lundin. The combination, appearing in their second five-star Nations Cup this season, were clear until the final line when faulting at the penultimate fence, a tall green plank.

Making his debut at five-star Nations Cup level, Waterford’s Peter Moloney produced a brilliant clear with the big jumping 11-year-old stallion Chianti’s Champion (Champion du Lys x Cornet Obolensky), despite a scare through the combination. Owned by Princess Haya’s Team Harmony, the horse was produced to five-star level by Dutchman Frank Schuttert and purchased for Moloney at the end of March.

Darragh Kenny was next to go with Ann Thompson’s Important De Muze (Erco van’t Roosakker x Nabab de Reve), who finished third in the five-star Grand Prix of La Baule last Sunday. The 11-year-old gelding was foot-perfect throughout to come home on a score of zero.

Cian O’Connor was, for the second week in-a-row, debuting a new horse at Nations Cup level. Riding his own nine-year-old gelding PSG Final (Toulon x Cassini), O’Connor had a foot in the water and knocked the final part of the combination at fence nine to return with eight faults, the discard score.

That meant Ireland finished round one as joint leaders with Sweden on four faults.

There were huge scores racked up in the first round from The Netherlands (17 faults), France (28) and last week’s La Baule winners Switzerland (28), who had Martin Fuchs eliminated after The Sinner, former ride of Denis Lynch, refused to go past the in-gate during the round. With only eight of the nine teams coming back for the second round, Switzerland missed the cut.

Sweden pull away

Henrick von Eckermann got Sweden off to a flying start when he jumped the first of only two double clears of the competition with his recent Royal Windsor five-star Grand Prix winner Toveks Mary Lou.

McAuley repeated his four faults score in round two when he was unlucky to knock the upright at fence 10 in an otherwise perfect round.

There was agony for Moloney when, after what looked like an easy round from the combination, the final fence fell and he crossed the line with a time fault to finish with five faults and the lead suddenly looked to be slipping into the hands of Sweden.

Kenny seemed to be heading for a double clear when the first part of the troublesome combination at nine came down and he too completed with four faults.

Sweden wrapped up victory on eight faults when Peder Fredricson and H&M Christian K produced a clear. With a big gap to Belgium and The Netherlands on 18 faults, O’Connor could secure second place on the podium if he could produce a score of five faults or less.

Correcting his mistakes from the first round with the talented PSG Final, O’Connor was foot-perfect, adding nothing second time out for Ireland to finish on a team total of 12 faults.

Belgium and The Netherlands finished joint-third, ahead of home nation Italy in fifth place on 23 faults and Germany in sixth with 25.

McAuley victory

Earlier in the day, McAuley claimed victory in the 1.50m Table A. Riding the 10-year-old gelding Valentino Tuiliere, owned by his wife Charlotte, McAuley broke the beam in 56 seconds to secure €6,250.