St. Gallen in Switzerland plays host to the third leg of the 2005 Samsung Super League series on Friday, June 3, and the Swiss team will be keen to keep the home supporters happy with a good result there.

Lying fifth on the leaderboard after the first two legs of the series in La Baule and Rome, they have coped well so far in this, their first Super League season, and Chef d'Equipe Rolf Grass will choose his side from Fabio Crotta, Markus Fuchs, Christina Liebherr, Beat Mandli and Niklaus Schurtenberger.

Their German neighbours had been expected to scoop the honours in Rome when fielding a super-strong side but had to settle for third. The big guns will be out in force again this Friday, determined to improve on that situation. Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum will be armed with her FEI World Cup winning partner Shutterfly and is joined by Ludger Beerbaum, Marcus Ehning and Lars Nieberg.

Fourth place on the leaderboard at present is occupied by the French team, who has been a little inconsistent so far. Chef d'Equipe Jean-Maurice Bonneau had warned at the beginning of the series that he might face some difficulty due to the absence of several of his best horse and rider combinations, but three of his squad for this week's fixture--Eugenie Angot, Laurent Goffinet and Christian Hermon--are now seasoned veterans, while Alexis Gautier and Jacques Bonnet complete the French
contingent.

Their new bright orange jackets have ensured the Dutch cannot go without notice this season, but they will be hoping to improve on their sixth placing on the series table ahead of their home fixture in Rotterdam in just under three weeks time. The team remains unchanged from the one sent to Rome with Leopold Van Asten, Leon Thijssen, Eric van der Vleuten and Albert Zoer called up for duty again, along with Angelique Hoorn.

Second-last on the leaderboard at the moment are the Belgians who, like the Dutch, have only accumulated a small number of points so far and who need to pull away from the Irish at the bottom of the table in order to stay safely out of trouble.

Lucien Somer's side is also the same as that sent to Italy last weekend but Ludo Philippaerts, Marc van Djick, Jean Claude Vangeenberghe and Maurice van Roosebroeck are joined by new recruit Patrick McEntee. The latter has close family connections with Ireland and there is somewhat of an Irish slant about this Friday's event, so perhaps Irish fortunes might at last begin to show a bit of an upswing.

Located in the north-east of Switzerland, about one hour from Zurich and with a population of about 70,000 people, St. Gallen is named after an Irish monk, who, having travelled through France and Italy, established a hermitage there around 612.

It was at the European Championships in St. Gallen back in 1995 that Peter Charles' individual medal-winning performance put Ireland back on track after a long period in the doldrums, and in the opening Samsung Super League season in 2003 Robert Splaine went into a head-to-head with Markus Fuchs to seal victory for the Emerald Isle before going on to win the grand prix.

Yet another new name appears as Chef d'Equipe for the Irish side this week as former national champion Tom Slattery takes on the role and Chairman of Selectors, Taylor Vard, was at pains to explain the reason for this. "We thought we were well-assured that Eddie Macken was coming on board this year, but when he let us down and we began looking for a replacement, everyone we contacted was already committed for the season," he said. "Trevor Coyle has been helping out with training and each selector will be chef at some stage--it's not ideal, we need more consistency, but we've decided it's the best way to proceed right now."

The Samsung Super League is a major priority for Irish show jumping. "As far as