patience

Earlier this week centre and defensive leader Henry Slade asked for patience.

There have been moments of encouragement on her climb back into the world's top 60, but plenty of patience has also been required.

Doing so is a pragmatic as well as a moral necessity lest the voters’ patience and generosity run out.

But her detractors had little patience for any missteps — and Thao made a few.

"We're testing fans' patience, testing our patience," admitted England number eight Ben Earl.