THERE was pure delight for the Brazilian team today winning the La Baule Nations Cup for the first time in its 12-year history.

The Irish team finished in sixth place, earning another 55 crucial Nations Cup points following on from their first point-scoring outing runner-up finish at Samorin, Slovakia.

Chased by The Netherlands, Switzerland and Spain, it was a brilliant final round clear at La Baule this afternoon by Brazil's Pedro Veniss on the nine-year-old Selle Francais striking liver chensut stallion Quabri de L Isle who nailed the victory for the triumphant team in 77.24 seconds to finish on a team total of seven faults.

In doing so, they just pipped the Dutch team who completed on eight, courtesy of a great second round clear by World No 1 Harrie Smolders on Don VHP 2. followed by the third-placed Switzerland on nine, with Spain on 12, Germany (14), Ireland (17) with France (20) and Canada (35).

Rodrigo Pessoa's team of Cameron Hanley (Quirex, owned by Patrick Mielnik), Mark McAuley (Utchan de Belheme, owned by Charlotte McAuley), Shane Sweetnam (Indra van de Oude, owned by the Blue Buckle Group) and Paul O'Shea (Skara Glen's Machu Picchu) earned 55 points from today's outing, putting in gallant performances over a tricky course which kept the home crowd on their edge of their seats.

Hanley's performance proved absolutely crucial today, his final round with the nine-year-old grey Quirex, clear in 79.08 was the standout for Ireland with the duo incurring just a single time penalty in round one in an otherwise fautless opener for the duo.

Ireland now sits in second place on the Nations Cup leaderboard on 145 points behind leaders the Swiss leaders on 180.