Only eight of the 18 participating teams could qualify for the finale on Saturday (September 24) and the French missed out as they finished 11th.

Switzerland, Great Britain and Italy did all make the cut, however, after finishing with four faults each, whilst the last two places went to The Netherlands and Ireland.

The remaining countries - Brazil, Qatar, Spain, Austria, Egypt, Colombia, Mexico, Sweden and Australia - will now join the the French Challenge Cup, due to take place tomorrow.

Despite being defending champions, it was surprising that the Belgians managed to produce such an impressive performance after a poor season in the 2016 series.

"I’m very happy with the way the horses jumped and the riders rode, but maybe the result today was a bit unexpected," said Belgian Chef d’Equipe Dirk Demeersman after the leading three countries all achieved zero faults.

"Last year we came with a team with a lot of experience, but this year we came with a team with not so much.

"However we have been showing good results in the last few weeks."

The 80-seconds time-allowed over the track set by Spain’s Santiago Varela proved fairly easy to achieve but his course certainly tested the 72 competitors in action.

The French looked vulnerable from the start with Philippe Rozier and Rahotep de Toscane scoring 21 faults.

In addition, Kevin Staut, Roger Yves Bost and Penelope Leprevost all each had a fence down and their 12-fault total would be too much at the end of the day.

The Germans were the first to post three clear rounds with world number one Christian Ahlmann steering Taloubet home with ease before Marcus Ehning and Daniel Deusser followed.

Ludger Beerbaum, lining up for his country in his last Nations Cup, made it all the way to the final planks before bringing it down with Casello.

The Americans and Belgians were forced to wait for their fourth and last riders to complete the track before posting their zero scorelines.

Laura Kraut anchored the United States total, while Gregory Wathelet performed similarly for Belgium.

Rio 2016 individual gold medallist Nick Skelton got the British off to a great start with a clear round on Big Star and when Michael Whitaker backed that up with a great round on Viking they were all but through to the final.

The Italians showed the same kind of grit that earned them victory in the Nations Cup leg in Dublin earlier this summer with clears from Piergiorgio Bucci and Lorenzo de Luca, backed up by single mistakes from their team-mates.