Caitriona Murphy

ITALY got its Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup campaign off to the perfect start yesterday afternoon by winning in Lummen, Belgium and taking home the maximum possible league points of 100.

Ireland, although finishing last of the eight teams on the day, collected 45 points towards the league at the first of its four points-scoring shows.

The exciting season opener saw the delighted Italians move up from second after round won to the top spot on the podium at the end of two rounds on a final team tally of just six faults. Second place was shared by the host nation Belgium (12) and Britain (12), although it was not a points-scoring show for the British team. As a result, Belgium collects 85 league points.

Round one leaders France slipped to fourth place at the finish on 16 faults and collected 70 league points in the process, while the Netherlands (20) and Switzerland (20) shared fifth place on the day. Sweden finished seventh on 28 faults and collected 50 league points.

Ireland’s final team score of 33 faults put them last of the eight competing nations but team manager Robert Splaine took heart from the performance of Greg Broderick and the Irish Sport Horse MHS Going Global on their debut at five-star level.

“Lummen was always going to be a challenge, as my options for the team proved limited at this point. However, every cloud has a silver lining for, with major challenges ahead, it was great to see a new star emerging in the shape of Greg Broderick and MHS Going Global,” said Splaine.

Cameron Hanley and Living The Dream provided Ireland’s discount score of the opening round, recording nine faults, a score which was equalled by Billy Twomey and Diaghilev.

Denis Lynch and Abbervail Van Het Dingeshof opened their account with eight faults but Broderick was best of the Irish, having just one pole down.

Ireland finished round one on a team tally of 21, behind leaders France (0), Italy (2), Britain (4) and the Netherland, Sweden and Belgium who were tied at that stage on eight apiece. Switzerland had a team score of 12 after the opening round.

In the second round, Denis Lynch recorded eight faults, while Cameron Hanley and ‘Dave’ improved to have four faults on the scoreboard.

Broderick also improved on his first round performance, recording Ireland’s only clear round of the competition with the nine-year-old gelding MHS Going Global. Billy Twomey and Diaghilev were the discount score in the second round on 12 faults.

Ireland’s remaining Nations Cup venues are La Baule, St Gallen and the Aga Khan Cup at Dublin.