Ireland wins final leg of Nations Cup

Ireland won the final leg of the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup competing on home turf at the Royal Dublin show (Friday 7 August).

Convincing

The team’s win was so convincing that fourth rider Darragh Kenny didn’t have to jump a second time.

Bertram had one down in the first round riding Romanov owned by Billy Twomey, but the rest jumped clear, leaving them on zero points going into round two.

The only double clear came from Greg, who made his debut at the Dublin show riding MHS Going Global.

‘Class of their own’

Bertram went on to jump clear while Cian had one down second time out with Good Luck. This put them on a total of four faults and the clear leaders, meaning Darragh and Sans Soucis Z didn’t have to jump again.

“I’m very proud of the four them, they really pulled together and they were in a class of their own today,” said chef d’equipe Robert Splaine.

The Netherlands were second (eight faults), while Switzerland came third (13 faults) – despite the elimination of Olympic champion Steve Guerdat.

Big shock

The Brits didn’t perform well to place sixth (23 faults). Scott Brash (Hello M’Lady) and Robert Whitaker (Catwalk) produced the team’s only two clears. Scott went on to have one down, while Robert incurred nine faults in round two.

Michael Whitaker (Cassionato) had five faults in both rounds, while Spencer Roe (Wonder Why) provided the drop score after having a total of nine fences down.

But the biggest shock came from team USA – last year’s winners at Dublin – who were last with 32 faults. Things didn’t start well when Charlie Jayne collected 20 faults first time out and was then dumped in the water by Valeska.

Furusiyya final

Despite Britain’s disappointing results in both Dublin and Hickstead (where they also came sixth) they have qualified for the Furusiyya final in Barcelona in September. Joining them are Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Netherlands and Sweden.

Those that miss out are Germany who are in eighth place and Italy in ninth. Spain finishes last, but still gets to compete as they are hosting the final.