Despite four perfect clears in the second round and a double clear from Anthony Condon with the stallion Aristio, Ireland finished in joint sixth place in a low-scoring Swedish Nations Cup at Falsterbo today (Friday).

Ireland were in joint seventh place at the halfway stage where three teams (Switzerland, Sweden and Brazil), shared the lead on a zero score. Waterford-born Condon and the John Hales-owned 10-year-old Aristio produced a perfect opening clear. Tipperary's Shane Breen lowered a single pole with Golden Hawk and Ireland had to count one of the nine fault scores from Cork's Shane Sweetnam with Chaqui Z, or Offaly's Darragh Kenny riding Go Easy De Muze.

Ireland were in incredible form in the second round with all four riders jumping fault free. Robert Spaine’s side stayed on their 13 fault total to finish in joint sixth place along with Germany. Switzerland claimed the winner’s trophy with the Irish Sport Horse Castlefield Eclipse and Paul Estermann jumping a double clear round. The home team from Sweden finished as runners-up ahead of Britain, The Netherlands and Brazil in joint third.

Horse Sport Ireland Show Jumping team manager Robert Splaine said:

"Falsterbo Nations Cup was being used as one of the final selection trials for the Olympic Games for many of the teams that lined-out here and this, together with Furusiyya league ranking points up for grabs, ensured that this was always going to be an extremely competitive show at the highest level.

"Guillermo Jorge the course designer for the Olympic Games at Rio was on hand to build today's track. Falsterbo is a very important show for us and to say I was frustrated by our weakness as a team in the first round compared to our strength as a team in the second is an understatement. To come back with a clean sheet by all in the second round was an extraordinary achievement and was not matched by any other team and was proof of what was very possible for us. We will have to be very good in Dublin.  A huge thank you to the owners of all our horses"

Ireland will have one final chance to score league points when the Nations Cup series visits the Dublin Horse Show in a fortnights time, where the Aga Khan trophy will be up for grabs.

Shane Sweetnam scored his second win of the week at Falsterbo on Friday morning, taking the Derby qualifier with Cyklon - adding to another win for the pair in the opening class at the show on Thursday.

Nations Cup Irish Scores:

Shane Sweetnam/Chaqui Z 9/0

Darragh Kenny/Go Easy De Muze 9/0

Anthony Condon/Aristio 0/0

Shane Breen/Golden Hawk 4/0

Team total 13 faults