For those keeping a close eye on the progress of Fermanagh rowers, Ross Corrigan and Nathan Timoney, it may have seemed strange to not see the pair together in Lucerne, Switzerland for Rowing World Cup II last week.

Timoney has been carrying an injury for some time and it was decided that Corrigan would pair up with John Kearney Men's Pair for Ireland.

There was to be no medal for the pair but it was an improvement for the Irish boat from World Cup I.

In the first World Cup, Corrigan and Timoney missed out on the A final and in the end won the B final.

This time around, Corrigan and Kearney qualified for the A final finishing sixth.

The pair had an encouraging first heat and semi-final.

On day one, the new combination took second place behind reigning world champions Great Britain to qualify for the semi-final.

In the semi, they finished behind Spain and the second GB crew pulling out the fastest 500m split in their final quarter to qualify ahead of the USA.

In the final, however, they could not replicate this and finished in sixth position.

Looking back at the weekend, Corrigan said: "It's always different especially in a small boat when there are only two of you in it. It'll always be different because it's a 50 per cent change in the boat.

"The way we were racing was quite different. Myself and Nathan would normally go off very quickly out of the blocks. Our natural race ended up we would lead the race and try and keep ahead of them for as long as possible and try and hold on to it.

"With John, it ended up being nearly the reverse. We tried to stay as close to them out of the blocks and then the second-half of the race is always faster.

"In some ways it was fun having a different experience and a different kind of race profile to do," said Corrigan who added the pair were quite happy with the first two races but were disappointed in the final.

"We tried to go off a bit harder and reduce the lead the other crews were getting off us in the first bit and we sort of tensed up and we didn’t find as nice a rhythm through the middle of the race as we had been getting. It left us out the back door and it was too much to claw back in the second half of the race.

"Going into the race, into the final after the semi-final performance we thought we weren’t too far away from a medal here so we’ll keep pushing for it."

But it is all part of the process as Corrigan and Timoney are still fighting for Olympic qualification.

And Corrigan believes it leaves him in a good place when he pairs up with Timoney again in the coming weeks.

"There were nine Olympic-qualified crews at that plus another couple of crews. So it's not a soft regatta. It's definitely a strong regatta.

"To make the A final after three to four weeks of training together bodes well for getting back in the boat with Nathan.

"I think it shows the depth in the squad. It was Plan B to have John in the boat for the World Cup and the Plan B was still not a million miles off taking a medal in a strong field so I think that is very positive."

With the solid performance at Lucerne alongside Timoney's recovery, Corrigan believes the Fermanagh pair will in be in a good place as they put a final push for selection: "It's good being in with John. It gave me a chance to be on the water and keep racing.

"For Nathan what he needed needed was to get over the back injury and get the fitness back to where he needed it to be.

He was training like a demon for the last five weeks so it will definitely help him."