Silver for Ireland in Longines EEF series

Ireland are CSIO4* Longines EEF Series runners-up after finishing second following a jump-off in Warsaw this afternoon.

Led by Taylor Vard in the Polish capital, the Underwriting Exchange Irish Show Jumping team of Jessica Burke with Express Trend (ISH), Jenny Rankin with Ibiza, Seamus Hughes Kennedy with ESI Rocky (ISH) and Francis Derwin with Flexi K (ISH) jumped brilliantly throughout but were just beaten into second place.

The Irish finished on a score of eight faults, level with Italy after a dramatic afternoon of jumping, with Germany in third on 12 faults.

It came right down to the wire with Italy close to sealing the win in round two before a final fence pole down for their anchor rider meant the jump-off was needed.

Hughes Kennedy performed brilliantly against the clock, setting a clear-round time of 42.42 seconds on ESI Rocky, but Piergiorgio Bucci and Hantano clocked a time of 41.73 to take the honours.

It wasn't to be for Ireland, and Vard was disappointed yet understandably delighted with his team’s performance after what has been an excellent campaign in the series, which began in April.

He said: "We’re devastated here, we really are. To come that close after such a brilliant performance is a tough one to take right now, but they were all magnificent and Seamie did an outstanding job in the jump-off.

"We actually could have won it earlier and then it looked like we had lost it before they gave us that lifeline. And Seamie was so fast under massive pressure but the Italian combination had that bit extra.

"It’s a very young team, and they have performed so well. As I said, we’re very disappointed but Michael Blake was on the phone immediately after and he was delighted with them all.

"We had been written off for this