In somewhat of a renaissance, the French stormed to victory in the third leg of the Samsung Super League with FEI series in Rome, Italy today and while the Germans maintain the lead at the head of the table, their advantage has been significantly reduced after a disappointing performance at the Italian fixture.

Finishing joint-fifth along with Italy, Switzerland, Sweden and
Holland, Germany only collected 1.5 points but the Americans, who shared second place with the much-fancied British, added a further six to their tally and lie just 1.5 points behind the leaders going into the fourth leg in Lucerne next Friday. The French have moved into third and today's result saw a different, more focused French effort along with a welcome return of the kind of spirit that earned them the Samsung title during both the 2003 and 2004 seasons.

Course designer Giovanni Bussu presented a clever track that was not over-big but still tested horses and riders and created a drama-filled finale to the competition. The water jump at five created a few problems but it was the following double - vertical to oxer witth water trays under each element - that was the bogey of the day while the triple combination three from home, and the flimsy penultimate rustic, found out tiring horses.

Trailing the leaderboard going into this third leg, the Irish were not favoured by the first-to-go draw but pathfinder, 23 year old Ryan Crumley, was not fazed on his Super League debut when producing a foot-perfect tour of the track. The first-line riders generally followed suit with apparently little effort but as the competition evolved the problems began to emerge and Olympic medalist Ulrich Kirchhoff did nothing for German chances when Carino stumbled after the second element of the treble and ground to a halt, returning a score of 18. Holland's Wim Schroder fared even worse when Eurcommerce Vancouver landed in the water, slipped and crash-landed while Mylene Diederichsmeier did well to return an eight-fault result for Germany with Countess G who almost jammed on the brakes in front of the double
at six.

The most spectacular dismount of the day however was reserved
for Italy's Natale Chiaudani who took a horrible fall from Hariane
D'Authieux when they got their distance wrong in the double after the water.

At the halfway stage the Germans were in deep trouble, carrying 16 faults due to Kirchhoff's elimination. Italy, Switzerland, Sweden and Holland were all sharing a tally of 12 faults while the much-improved Irish shared second slot with the British and Americans with just four on the board and the French already led the field on a zero score when dropping the 12 faults collected by Simon Delestre and Inedite de Balme.

Another 12 faults for Germany saw them complete with a total of 28 and, in a rather strange sequence, four more nations finished with exactly the same score. An uncharacteristic four fences down for Loro Piana Albin and Juan Carlos Garcia did nothing to enhance Italy's position, the Swiss failed to record a single clear round, the Swedes looked to be making a recovery when Lotta Schultz produced a fault-free performance from Calibra but three mistakes from Svante Johansson and Nostradamus put paid to that, and the Dutch joined the 28-fault group when they had to add 16 more to their tally.

A battle was played out between the Irish, British and Americans, and Irish chances were diminished when Crumley's second-round 12 faults could not be discounted as Charles came home with four fences on the floor to leave them with a total of 20. The British were just not quite as sharp as had been expected with rising star Tim Gredley less impressive than of late when collecting 12 faults and when all four riders made a single error second time out they completed with 16.