Andrew Hodge and Peter Reed were beaten to the gold in the World Cup event in Munich at the weekend by an outstanding New Zealand crew in the men’s pair Hebden’s Hodge and Reed were defeated but not totally downcast after the men’s pair final in which they took silver.

Both are still learning the craft of rowing in a pair after four seasons of virtually uninterrupted fours rowing.

New Zealand’s Eric Murray and Hamish Bond raced out into a lead by 500m over a Dutch duo in second and GB in third.

A push from Reed and Hodge moved them up to second by halfway.

Then the chase was on. As the crews rowed past the long grandstand, built for the 1972 Olympic Games, you could feel the raw power engage in the British boat.

Ultimately it was enough to pull them back within a length of New Zealand but no more. So silver to Reed and Hodge in 6:38.18 to New Zealand’s 6:35.47.

“All credit to the Kiwis”, said Reed, “we had hoped to battle them side-by-side but we were outclassed today.

“It shows sport is not a fairytale. But we’re not going to give up hope. We have taken world cup silver before and gone on to win the Olympics.”

“We will listen to Jurgen (Grobler) our coach and we will continue to work hard,” said Hodge of the next few weeks, which will include action at Henley Royal Regatta and the world cup finals in Lucerne.

“I am not going to say we were at our best today and some of our leading boats did not quite deliver,” said GB Rowing Performance Director David Tanner, “but we have some really good green shoots within the team who have the ability to step up in a season of change and growth.”

Great Britain still lead the World Cup overall points standings after two events.

The World Cup finals are in Lucerne from July 10-12 and some GB crews will race at Henley from July 1-5.