Leicester Tigers fly-half Toby Flood has revealed that he will remain patient in his bid to displace Owen Farrell from the England team.
Flood, 21, has impressed for his club this season, while he landed seven kicks from eight attempts in England's Six Nations win over Scotland.
However, Saracens fly-half Owen Farrell is expected to be in the side to face Ireland on Sunday, with Flood insisting that he holds no grudges.
"It's work in progress. You have to bide your time in life and sometimes you have to take your hat off when guys are playing well and certainly in the last couple of games for England those guys have gone well - and especially Owen," he told Sky Sports News.
"I'll just keep working as hard as I can and the nice thing for me is that it's an open and honest environment, there's no-one trying to sweep things under the carpet or pretend things aren't natural.
"It's open, Stuart's been great with that so I know where I stand and what I have to do to try and get it back and obviously part of that comes with just keeping my head down and working very hard. But the other part of that thing I can't control is how well Owen's playing and you've got to respect that."
Flood has 53 international caps to his name.
