'I knew an opportunity may come down the line. I didn’t expect this'

Those thinking Tom O’Toole switching from tighthead to loosehead was just a cute sleight of hand with Ireland in the midst of a deep front row injury crisis, should think again.

Having started just one professional game at loosehead before this campaign, the 27-year-old’s second and third starts on the left-hand side of the scrum came in the form of Six Nations Tests against Wales and Scotland.

It’s one of the sport’s trickiest positional transitions, yet O’Toole made it look remarkably easy.

He admits the scale of it all is still sinking in.

“Still kind of just taking it all in at the moment. Still processing it. It’s been a crazy few weeks. Training in Portugal and then not involved in the France game and then playing off the bench a couple of times, then 4G, Jerry [Jeremy Loughman] picks up a knock and then became an opportunity last couple of weeks, so I don’t know, I guess sitting here, just extremely privileged and honoured to be part of this group. It’s a special day and I just really want to enjoy the moment.”

The story of O’Toole’s fortnight is really the story of years: preparation in the background, footwork and body angles drilled on the training paddock. Yet, against Wales and Scotland, as he puts it, the key was staying out of his own way.

“I guess it’s trying not to overthink the last few weeks from switching over from traditionally tight to getting an experience at loosehead, but I guess for me, last two weeks I was just trying to stick to my process.

“I just tried not to really overthink it the last couple of weeks, but now that it’s finished up now, it’s nice to reflect and be proud of the effort of this group and I’ve had an unbelievable support network around me to help me perform, especially over the last couple of weeks getting started and getting an opportunity. So he just said well done. I’m honoured and I’m grateful to get that from Andy [Farrell].”

“He spoke to me a few times throughout this campaign one-to-one, and there’s an expectation when you put on a green jersey and when you play for Ireland that you have to perform. So I just tried not to give myself any excuses and I just did it to play for this team and play for the coaches, because they create an unbelievable environment that you want to perform and you have to perform.”

Injuries to Andrew Porter, Paddy McCarthy, Jack Boyle and Loughman have certainly opened the door for O’Toole, but it’s an opportunity he has grabbed greedily with both hands. Yet the Drogheda-born prop’s “overnight” success has been anything but.

“I’ve done a lot of preparation with loosehead stuff behind the scenes over the last couple of years. I knew an opportunity may come down the line. I didn’t expect this big of an opportunity over the last few weeks. It’s due to a few injuries within the Irish system, especially looseheads, so I just wanted to have no regret leaving this campaign, and the experience I got from the last few weeks will hopefully leave me in a really good place.

“I took the confidence, maybe not scrummaging on such a high level within games, but training and preparation over the last couple of years behind the scenes, to keep chipping away at it, has allowed me to perform and to execute when it’s come to games.”

“I guess early on in the game the last few weeks I just wanted to approach that piece with a mindset to attack it, not try and feel my way into it, have no regrets coming away from the game. To attack it, I’m pretty blessed to have Dan [Sheehan] and Tadhg [Furlong] on the other side and have a pack full of Lions, so you come to that pretty confident that if I just do my job I’ll hopefully get a result. It was pretty pleasing to start the game like that [winning a scrum penalty against British & Irish Lions tighthead Zander Fagerson], to get an opportunity to create our team to get an opening try which put us in a good place.

“One thing I said over the last few weeks is that I got the confidence from that training week into the weekend, and when I got to it I was going against pretty experienced tightheads over the last few weeks, so I just tried not to put myself under too much pressure or think too much about that. I wanted to focus on myself and what I can do, so I wanted to attack it from the off and I felt like the preparation for the week allowed that.”

Mentorship helps, too. When you’re swapping sides of the scrum, there are few better sherpas than Cian Healy, and few better sounding boards than Tadhg Furlong.

“It’s been class having Cian the last few weeks and with his experience giving me a little bit of advice, but with the experience in the squad with Tadhg and everything like that, sitting down with him during the week, making sure that we were going thoroughly through our sessions and making any fix-ups.”

And the body of work extends beyond the set-piece. O’Toole flung himself into the defensive workload and the tempo of the contest, tallying 20 tackles by the end of his shift, a remarkable stat for a prop.

“It’s all a bit of a blur, but I felt like I got around and I got busy anyway. To get 20 tackles, that’s pretty good. We knew it was going to require a pretty defensive performance. Scotland last week had a high-scoring game against France, so I put myself in the best possible position to make those tackles. I kept myself busy.

None of this happens without O’Toole’s own reset late last year. Missing November hurt… and helped.

“Obviously not being involved in November, I just tried to… the last couple of years I probably didn’t feel particularly where I wanted it to be with my own personal game and my enjoyment of rugby, and not being in that group let me reflect on what’s really important and allowed me to take a step back, and I knew that if I wanted to be back within this environment I had to perform well for my province and play well for Ulster.

“So I just tried to narrow my focus and that’s what I did. Fortunately enough, I played well enough for my province to get selected within the squad, and from going into this campaign to where it is now, it’s been an absolute journey for me, but I’m extremely pleased.”

Soon enough, he’ll revert to the tighthead jersey duties back at Ravenhill, with Ulster head coach Richie Murphy keen to get him back in the No.3 jersey.

O’Toole is not unduly worried.

“I’ve played tighthead a few years now. It will probably take just a little bit, maybe a session or two, to go back into it, but I wouldn’t expect it to take too long. I had to prove to myself first and foremost that I had the capability to play both sides and it’s something I wanted to bring into my game, that I’m a player who can play on both sides of the scrum.

“The challenge now is when I return to the province, for what Richie wants, what the team needs, the expectation is to perform. It’s not to give myself any excuses and to keep that attacking mentality.”

If there was a moment that underscored the opportunity that there was within the Ireland squad, then a recent squad meeting in Portugal might have been it.

“It was one of the first meetings in Portugal. He [Andy Farrell] told the lads with 10 caps or less to stand up.

“It was to show that due to injuries there were a lot of guys within the squad that maybe hadn’t had as much experience as previously, or some guys that have left the game, and that opened up opportunities for guys to come into the squad. It was just to highlight where the group was at early on before kicking off a campaign.”

And if all of this feels like a whirlwind, that’s because it is.

“It’s incredible. It’s a really nice feeling. Not being within the squad and to come back in and to win a Triple Crown, I’m reflecting on it now but I’m just trying to enjoy the day, enjoy the moment, enjoy the time with this group.”