THE IRISH JUMPING team had strong aspirations to be on today’s podium at the incredible Château de Versailles equestrian venue as the Jumping Team Final got under way.
An experienced medalist from London 2012 and an on-form rider during his ‘coming of age’ era alongside a world top-10 Olympian, the three-man team were also insiders’ tip for at least a bronze.
And the trio, with their horses James Kann Cruz, Legacy and Maurice, were in the mix following an almost-but-not-quite faultless round one and a perfect round two.
However, it wasn’t to be and Cian O’Connor – aboard Maurice – incurred nine penalties on his go-around.
“It is a tough day,” he told The 42 after Great Britain secured gold and Ireland had slipped to seventh position.
“My horse was a little more alert than usual. It is a shame, he has been jumping fantastic all year. He just touched those two fences today.
“Listen, we jump at shows week in and week out. It is our job. Normally we pull off clear rounds and unfortunately, it didn’t go our way today. The Olympics is where we want to achieve.
All the riders and horses have worked very hard. It is tough, a tough competition. A big atmosphere there.
“We are dealing with horses, we are dealing with live animals. Once they come out happy, well and sound, that is a good day.”
The atmosphere was such that the French crowd were simultaneously cheering and shushing as their riders jumped the 14 obstacles (including 18 jumping efforts), six of which were over 1.6m high, designed to showcase the best of Paris.
If the riders and their horses took longer than 79 seconds to complete the course, they incurred another penalty.
It was that strict deadline that bumped O’Connor’s penalty count from eight to nine but Ireland was already out of contention after the two rails knocked by the legs of Maurice.
“He started off really well,” explained O’Connor. “One two, good. Pink oxer, jumped well. Double jumped well with the water ditches. The Eiffel Tower fence he took a little look, obviously a fence he had never seen before. The wall to the next he jumped good.”
It was the next jumping pass that caused the first difficulty, a triple bar that had been flagged in advance as a potential sticky point.
“It was eight strides short to the triple combination,” says O’Connor. “I thought I had good distance. Not too close, but he just looked at something. He didn’t give a really powerful jump, stayed a bit low.
“I probably lost my concentration a little bit and got a bit too close to the second double. You see some people rub it and they stay up. That is the game. That is the sport.”
Shane Sweetman, who competed in Tokyo 2020, will also be feeling the what-if question after his near-ideal turn around Chateau de Versailles transformed itself on the final hurdle. James Kann Cruz clipped it, the rail falling to the ground. To add to the hurt, it slowed the pair down to see the four turn to a five in the penalties column.
“Shane had a fantastic round and the horse jumped really well,” O’Connor said when asked about the unfortunate mistake.
He also heaped praise on 29-year-old debutante Daniel Coyle, whose clean and fast run will have eyes on him going into the individual competition next week.
“Unreal,” O’Connor, now 44, exclaimed with a smile. “Daniel has really come of age here. He has been to a couple of championships, he has really matured. He was outstanding both days. He rode it really, really well.”
Coyle, whose Klopp-like fist pump after his performance overjoyed the significant Irish crowd almost as much as his 76.72 time.
All six competitors now have two days rest before resetting for the individual events.
“Two days off is good for the horses because they have a chance to relax a little bit and recover,” O’Connor said. “Then we can get out heads in the zone for Monday or Tuesday.”
Instead of the green, white and gold of Ireland, the Union Jack, the star-spangled banner and the tricolore of the Fifth Republic were raised during the medal ceremony.
Great Britain took the gold after three spectacular runs with just a mere two time penalties between them.
The USA saw only two rails fall, both during Laura Kraut’s first round. And, in the end, the raucous side of the French crowd won out with their team fending off the Dutch to take the last piece of metal available. Their bronze medal heroics were witnessed not just by the 20,000-strong audience but also their prime minister, Emmanuel Macron.
There were many standout moments this year, many players that stepped up to the mark but for me the one player who epitomized all the good things about Leinster is Robbie Henshaw. Himself and Ringrose make Leinsters and Ireland’s best centre pairing and consistently deliver a quality of performances not matched by others either here or abroad. Long may it continue.
My wish for 2021? That we can get back to supporting our team. God I miss the RDS match days.
@Ro Molloy: so true
So if you include last seasons victories with this seasons, it something like 27 played and 26 wins. Which is an incredible stat.
@Greg Cavey: 28 out of 29 if you Champions Cup. That’s phenomenal. However they haven’t played any decent teams this yet this season. The lack of depth in most PRO14 squads makes it easy for them when the internationals are on.
Munster & Ulster are also too strong for most other PRO14 teams.
Leinster were convincing in Europe. Munster showed grit and hinted that real progress is being made. Ulster? More depth required & maybe more quality in some positions.
Playing in the PRO14 isn’t improving Leinster but maybe when the top SA teams join it will improve them & the other Irish provinces and therefore the national team.
@TL55: Why would they need to improve…They are the best in the league by far.
@Harry O’Callaghan: To beat the likes of Saracens, Exeter and Toulouse.
Leinster correctly want to the big fish in the big pond not just the little pond.
@Harry O’Callaghan: So champions cup quarter final losses are the acceptable Leinster standard now are they? Do you think Exeter aren’t looking to improve or will they just sit and wait for someone to take the champions cup and premiership from them?
@Kohn Jeenan: it’s acceptable to lose 1 game of rugby per season. This can happen if you can’t see the improvement year on year at leinster well your just not looking.
@Chris Mc: I didn’t say they aren’t improving though, they are, I was saying they definitely need to keep improving, since it was implied they don’t need to improve at all just for being the best club in the pro14….
@Chris Mc: do you not think leinster have some issues at the setpiece? Furlong should shore up the scrum but leinster still have a bit of a dependence on toner
@Tim Magner: the leinster lineout is very poor even with toner in it.
Any team who competes in the air will win a fair amount of leinster ball. Its hard to understand as Cullen was a very good lineout operator.
Its far too complicated, too many moving parts and as simple as it sounds putting toner (or Ryan) straight up at 2 often discourages teams from competing and as such makes ball to the back easier to win in the long run.
@Chris Mc: I just don’t think the leinster pack has improved since ’18. Back then they had probably the 2 best props in europe in furlong & healy, ryan was on fire, toner was 2 yrs younger, fardy was keeping lowe out of the hcup squad and leavy was at his best. Since then porter and doris have shown their mettle at international level and baird looks a serious prospect but I dont think the pack now is as good as it was
@Tim Magner: fair point, healy is not getting any younger and Jack is gone. Furlong will be back soon enough and porter is a fine prop.
Hooker we are in a better place and while Ryan is not playing as well as he was what’s coming through with baird Dunne and Moloney is getting better. The backrow is better now. Leavy is almost there and doris is firing, Conan, jvdf, connors, penny ruddock Murphy etc are all seriously pushing each other. This pack will gell over the next few months. Only real concern is at looshead.
@Chris Mc: yer by no means in a bad place, ye still have the best pack in the pro14. I think the 18 pack was the best in europe though. As you say though the 2 young hookers look the business, penny has the look of a class player and baird could be special so as a munster fan I know leinster are going nowhere
@Tim Magner: I guess time will tell with this lot. In fairness the munster pack is becoming a serious unit too. Bar kilcoyne your missing a front row but have a few younger ones who could step up but the likes of coombes JOD and Aherne all could really make the grade. Theres nothing like players who grew up wanting to play for a club.