‘To Be Able To Play Both Sides Now Is Really Promising’ – O’Toole

O’Toole came into the Six Nations with 17 caps to his name, five of which were as a replacement throughout Ireland’s 2023 Grand Slam-winning campaign, but this was his first Championship start – and in a position he has rarely played.

In his nine-year professional career to date, he had never worn the number 1 or 17 jerseys for Ulster, but has moved across to the loosehead side mid-game. It has been the national coaches that have been keen for him to show his versatility in the front row.

This year’s Six Nations presented such an opportunity given Ireland’s high number of injuries at loosehead – Andrew Porter, Paddy McCarthy, and Jack Boyle are all currently sidelined, while Jeremy Loughman picked up a calf injury last week, prompting him to miss the Wales match.

Having been Loughman’s back-up against both Italy and England, Farrell and scrum coach John Fogarty had full confidence in O’Toole, who first got over half-an-hour off the bench as a replacement loosehead against Fiji in November 2024, and started in the position for Ireland ‘A’ last year.

Reflecting on how things went for him against Wales, he said: “It was a phenomenal week leading up and building into it. I think that is game number four at loosehead now (for Ireland), so just enjoying that challenge and kind of rolling with it.

“With training, I’ve switched over multiple times and done that at training throughout the last couple of years. The last time I did loosehead was against Benetton last season. Started the game at tighthead and moved over to loosehead when Scott Wilson came on.

“That was my last exposure at loosehead with Ulster, but (I’ve) kind of consistently been working at that over the last couple of years.

“When I got the taste of it with Ireland against Fiji, it’s something I had in the back of my mind that I’ll just keep chipping away with it and just keep it in the back locker.”

Making sure he was ready for such a scenario, the Drogheda-born forward also reached out to both Porter and Irish rugby centurion Cian Healy in recent weeks, particularly as the pair have experience of packing down in both prop positions.

Having Australian international loosehead Angus Bell up at Ulster has also come in handy. Leaving no stone unturned in his preparation, O’Toole acknowledged: “It’s been great to be able to chat with Angus, especially over the last few weeks, giving him a call, just kind of see what he thinks as well.

“He is a really good guy and helped me a lot throughout the process. He’s been a really good friend as well over the last few months. He’s just delighted to see me go well.”

He took Healy’s advice on board about just focusing on your game and ‘trying not to build it up too much’. That approach paid dividends with a very effective 63 minutes on the pitch on Friday, during which he won two scrum penalties against Tomas Francis, made eight carries and all 10 of his tackles.

O’Toole was keen to single out those around him for their help in ensuring he played his part in another successful team performance. He was primed by Fogarty’s wise counsel, and was packing down alongside two British & Irish Lions in Rónan Kelleher and Tadhg Furlong.

“I’m glad I’ve done that work over the last couple years because I’ve obviously been given an opportunity now. It was maybe a difficult transition at the start because there was a lot going through my mind.

“Once I simplified it, and once I talked to the right people, once I narrowed it down, then I found it maybe a little bit easier to get the flow of it.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say it is easy but it’s certainly different, which I’m kind of enjoying at this stage of my career to be able to play both sides now, which is really promising.”

The 27-year-old continued: “For me, it’s just kind of building confidence throughout the week. ‘Fogs’ has been really good with me.

“When you have the confidence of Rónan, a Lion, Tadhg, a Lion, guys around you that can help you so much, for me it kind of feels like, ‘Okay, that’s brilliant’.

“I try not to think too far into the future, but hopefully it puts me in a good place. They know I can cover both sides which is pleasing.

“Coming into this Six Nations, I had two cameos off the bench which I was extremely grateful for. But to be able to start a game now in the Six Nations, it’s like a cup final every week. It’s very pleasing.”

One of five changes in personnel, O’Toole combined with Kelleher to hold up Wales captain Dewi Lake in a choke tackle, early in the second half, and followed up by getting more plaudits from his team-mates when Ireland won a penalty at the resulting scrum.

He admitted the ‘early knock-on for Jack’s try wasn’t the best’ – his fumble was highlighted during a TMO review and denied Jack Conan a first-quarter score – but was pleased with how he quickly refocused on the task at hand and ranked the win ‘right up there’ in terms of his own career.

O’Toole made his Ireland debut against the USA back in 2021, and was thrilled to see one of his Ulster team-mates, Nathan Doak, win his first international cap against the Welsh, as well as Jamison Gibson-Park hitting the half-century mark.

“It was a long old day waiting for it to come around compared to the last two games, which have been 2.10pm (kick-offs). It was phenomenal. Just delighted to get the win.

“And for Doaky, getting his first cap, and Jamo, who’s been an unbelievable part of our squad. 50 caps. They’re just two quality guys

“Doaky getting 100 caps for Ulster and getting his first opportunity with Ireland. I was so pleased to see him come on early. It was great to see Jamo come back on, and it’s good to see both have a really nice day and get the win for those two.”

With Loughman ruled out of Saturday’s final round showdown with Scotland, O’Toole is in line to start back-to-back Tests for the first time. It would be a huge moment for him personally considering he missed all of last year’s Six Nations, which included a ban that covered the opening two rounds.

The manner in which he has added to the loosehead depth chart was given a ringing endorsement by head coach Farrell, who said: “It is amazing what Tom’s done. I mean, I don’t think anyone could underestimate that fact.

“It’s somewhat more difficult than what people would think. But what’s been really impressive is how he committed to it. How he committed to not having any excuses in his own mind. It’s very easy to do that, isn’t it? When you say, ‘Well, that’s not the position that I’ve been playing’.

“Everyone knows how difficult it is to switch, but he committed to it. And we’ve seen that type of scrummaging performance in training. He got us a few penalties on the back of that.”

He added: “There’s always things going on in the back of your mind of what could happen down the track. Different permutations that could happen injury-wise, do you need a double adaptor in the World Cup, all that type of stuff.

“Tom has trained there for us before but to be in there at the deep end, I’m sure he and Fogs wouldn’t have thought six months ago that he’d be starting at loosehead in a Test match. But I think that’s a fantastic story for us going forward.”