Ireland’s team of Mark McAuley riding Valenzo Giuseppe’s Isco De Amoranda, Alexander Butler riding Michael Leddy’s Monastery Stud More Pleasure, Captain Geoff Curran riding the Minister for Defence’s Mullaghbane (ISH) and Greg Broderick riding Caledonia Stable’s eight-year-old MHS Going Global finished joint third with Denmark on 24 faults at last week’s Furusiyya FEI Nations’ Cup.

Italy finished in first on 16 faults, with Sweden in second on 20 faults. Thirteen nations took part in the competition.

Ireland’s High Performance show jumping team manager Robert Splaine said: “This was a developmental Nations’ Cup for Ireland, giving new combinations Nations’ Cup experience towards the end of the season, which is crucial with the future in mind. At this show we had three horses and two riders making their Nations’ Cup debut.

“All combinations contributed to today’s success, Greg Broderick and the eight-year-old MHS Going Global (ISH) lived up to expectations and produced the best result for us and the best result in the competition for an eight-year-old.

“Captain Geoff Curran riding the Minister for Defence’s Mullaghbane (ISH) was impressive, Alexander Butler showed significant improvement in the second round and Mark McAuley also gave us a score that counted towards today’s result. I would like to thank the owners for making these horses available to jump for Ireland.”