VISITING nation Brazil won the FEI Nations Cup in Hickstead after a fantastic performance saw them finish with four faults, a massive 10 faults ahead of the Netherlands in second place. Rodrigo Pessoa’s Irish team placed fifth after a disappointing first round saw the faults rack up, however after Germany's Marcus Ehning was disqualified after blood was found on Comme Il Faut, Ireland moved up to take fourth.

Ireland went in to the penultimate round of the FEI Nations Cup series in seventh place, needing a good result to stay ahead of Spain, who currently lie last on the table, and cement their place at the world final in Barcelona this September. In a change from 2016, no Division 1 team will be relegated this season, however only seven will qualify for the final.

Co Derry’s Daniel Coyle, making his first Nations Cup appearance on an Irish team in Europe, got Ireland off to a four-fault start. Riding Sue and Ariel Grange’s Cita (Casall ASK x Pik Ramiro), the 22-year-old just got too close to the second part of the first double and it fell in an otherwise perfect round.

Richard Howley had been out of the team since St Gallen at the beginning of June, where he finished runner-up in the five-star Grand Prix, and on his reappearance with Mrs Aikenhead’s Chinook (Tygo x Wellington) was going well until the very last line when both parts of the final double fell for eight faults.

The rain began to fall quite heavily and Richie Moloney, another returning from the United States, was unlucky to pick up a single time fault after a super round of jumping aboard Equinimity LLC’s athletic 10-year-old stallion Ypaja Yando (Quinar x Lasino).

Anchor man Shane Sweetnam, the hero two weeks ago in Falsterbo, this time rode the less experienced nine-year-old gelding Main Road (Heartbeat x Irco Marco).

In rapidly deteriorating weather and ground conditions, Sweetnam did well to keep the gelding together after he was a long way off the four metre open water to land on the tape.

Another four faults at the second part of the double and a time penalty saw him finish on nine faults overall to be the discard score. Ireland went into round two in fifth place on 13 faults. Germany were out in the lead with a clean sheet, just ahead of Brazil with four faults and Switzerland on eight.

There was a delay of 30 minutes between the first and second round as British course designer Kelvin Bywater opted to move the fences to fresh ground. The time allowed was also increased to from 81 to 84 seconds in an effort to keep all combinations safe on the wet surface.

Thankfully, the rain eased, albeit not for long, as round two got underway and Coyle returned to produce a brilliant clear round with the lovely 11-year-old Holstein mare Cita, who has been Coyle’s top winning mount over the last eight months.

British-based Howley then followed with another clear round and it was looking like Ireland would finish with three clears in the second round when Moloney was still on zero coming to the penultimate obstacle, but a bit of bad luck saw that fence fall for four faults, meaning Sweetnam would have to return.

A clear round would have secured a place on the podium, but luck just wasn’t on his side as Sweetnam picked up four faults down the final line, leaving Ireland on a team total of 17 faults in fourth place.

There were jubilant scenes from the Brazilians in the pocket area. The team of Marlon Zanotelli (Sirene de La Motte), Pedro Veniss (For Felicila), Yuri Mansur (Babylotte) and Pedro Muylaert (Prince Royal Z Mfs) produced five clear rounds between them.

The Netherlands were a full 10 faults behind, with a team total of 14, in second place, however, as the highest placed points-scoring team, they secured another 100 points. Switzerland and Germany finished in equal third place (16 faults).

Ireland now lie in sixth place with 305 points heading into the final round at the Dublin Horse Show on Friday, August 11th, and look safe to qualify for Barcelona.

Pessoa announced his team for the FEI European Championships in Gothenburg earlier this week as Bertram Allen (Hector van d’Abdijhoeve), Cian O’Connor (Good Luck), Denis Lynch (All Star 5) and Shane Sweetnam (Chaqui Z). He is expected to name the five-man squad for Dublin early next week.