Every dog has his day and the Belgians finally had theirs in the Kerrygold Nations Cup at the RDS yesterday afternoon. The team swept to a magnificent victory, leaving the home side - the defending champions and red-hot favourites - floundering down in fourth place and out of the picture. The Belgian chef d'equipe, Ingmar de Vos, had thrown down the gauntlet at Hickstead a fortnight ago, telling his Irish counterpart Tommy Wade that his team was coming to Dublin "to beat you".
It did, in no uncertain terms, to record its first team victory on Irish soil and avenge the host team's 2000/01 double in its backyard in Lummen.
The Irish, drawn first to go, were on the back foot from the outset, with pathfinder Peter Charles apparently weighed down by home-ground pressure as Corrada's clear over the fences was wiped out with the addition of a desperately expensive five time faults.
"The course-builder cost us the class," Wade said afterwards. "I told Paul Duffy before the start that the fences were two notches too low and the time was too tight." All the griping in the world, however, was not going to erase those time faults and only a last-minute change from 77 seconds to 80 for the time allowed saved Charles from picking up eight on the clock.
The proverbial luck of the Irish deserted the home side just when it needed it most. Returning from its continental campaign with European gold round their necks, the riders wanted the win on home turf even more than last year.
But the rub of the green turned into the rub of the rails and four-fault rounds from Jessica Kurten and Kevin Babington left Dermott Lennon to pick up the pieces and, for once in his career, he couldn't come up with the goods. Two down and the Irish were struggling. The Belgians, as promised, were heading the pack on four faults, but they shared the lead with the Americans and Germans, with France fourth on nine and Ireland languishing in fifth on 14.
The Swiss, tipped as outsiders in the ante-post betting, held on to the final slot for the second round, leaving the British out in the cold after Michael Whitaker's anchorman clear degenerated into a disastrous 13-faulter when First Samuel spooked at the RTE sound boom beside the fourth from home.
The home side rallied after the break, with Charles, Kurten and Lennon finally producing the clears which had eluded them at the first attempt. Even Kevin Babington's discard was only a four, but the situation was beyond redemption.
Only disasters from those four teams could have salvaged a home win and the Belgians were in no mood for disasters. They had already survived their number four Stanny van Paesschen and O De Pomme hitting the deck after a slip-up when clear turning to the last. That was all the misfortune they were prepared to bear.
A double clear from first in Ludo Philippaerts set them on the trail and Jos Lansink swiftly followed suit as the Americans and Germans faded.
When Marc van Dijck faulted only at the planks, van Paesschen wasn't even needed to secure victory.
The golden Aga Khan trophy was Belgium's and, to compound the winner's delight, Ireland could move no higher than fourth in the final order, slumped in behind a rejuvenated French quartet and the Americans.