At the end of a stressful 24 hours for Ireland’s Eventing athletes in Tokyo, the team lies 13th of the 15 competing nations and Sam Watson and Austin O’Connor lie 28th and 34th respectively. The dressage phase continues on Saturday morning when the last team member, Sarah Ennis, will compete with Woodcourt Garrison.

The overnight withdrawal of leading contenders, Cathal Daniels and his brilliant horse Rioghan Rua, was a huge blow to Irish chances. Chef d’Equipe, Sally Corscadden, said it was a veterinary issue, “and we were monitoring the situation and giving her every chance to perform”.

First to go for Ireland on Friday, scoring 34.3, Carlow’s Sam Watson said, “it was hard because the mare is in good form but she just wasn’t quite where we needed the bloods to be. This travel and heat can take a bit out of them…it’s tough for Cathal”.

Reserve rider Austin O’Connor was called up with Colorado Blue at six-o-clock Tokyo time on Thursday evening. He also competed on Friday and the first part of his test went well, but the horse over-reacted in the canter changes towards the end. The British-based Mallow man said he was disappointed but wouldn’t be using the late call-up as an excuse for his result after scoring 38.00.

On a combined score of 72.3, and with more to count, Ireland is a long way off the British leaders who carry 49.4 into the second day of dressage. But the team leaderboard is filled with surprises, with Sweden lying second ahead of Japan and China, and the big guns from Germany, New Zealand, France and USA trailing further behind.

World number one, Britain’s Ollie Townend, leads the individual rankings with a score of 23.60.