Given the extent of their injury list, and the filleting they were given by South Africa in November, Ireland's scrum was under the spotlight coming into this Guinness Six Nations.
Despite fears it would be their undoing against France in Paris, the setpiece was a non-factor in the 36-14 defeat, but those concerns have returned after a chastening experience for the front row against the Italians on Saturday.
In total, Ireland gave up five penalties to the Italian scrum in their 20-13 win. This weekend’s opponents England will offer an even tougher examination, having won five penalties of their own in their defeat to Scotland.
Simone Farrari, Giacomo Nicotera and Danilo Fischetti utterly dominated Jeremy Loughman, Dan Sheehan and Thomas Clarkson, before the alarming sight of Tadhg Furlong being driven into the air by Mirco Spagnolo on 64 minutes, with the Irish tighthead given "his wings", as the phrase goes.
From that penalty, the Italians closed Ireland’s lead to seven points, and with the game in the balance Tom O’Toole was summoned from the bench to shore up the Irish scrum.
The 27-year-old (below) is no rookie, a veteran of 135 Ulster appearances and 17 Ireland caps. The issue is that pretty much all of that had come at tighthead prop.
Switching between the two isn’t done much at the top level of the game. If you’re wondering why, just try writing with your bad hand.
His first action was a scrum just seconds after coming onto the pitch in the Italian half, and the Ulster prop got a good nudge on his side, but Italy retained possession.
The crucial moment came three minutes from time, when Ireland had to lock out a scrum five metres from their own posts, with the game on the line.
After the game, Farrell singled out O’Toole for his "rock solid" form on that shove, as Ireland secure their possession and exited the 22 safely, seeing out the win.
"Coming on with like 15 minutes to go, big game, tight game, I trained well throughout the week," O’Toole said this week, as he looked back on his weekend cameo.
"I had that confidence, I have good guys around me."
Part of that confidence came from outside the squad. Earlier in the week, O’Toole grabbed a chat with recently retired Ireland and Leinster loosehead Cian Healy, who spent the final few years of his career swapping back and forth between tight and loose – and even once at hooker.
Andrew Porter, another who has made the move from tight to loose, has been there for advice.
"In our scrum, there's varying body heights, there's varying leg movements, there's varying angles, it's a horrific sight" - How will Andy Farrell address Ireland's scrum issues? @bernardjackman analyses the area ahead of this weekend's clash with England #RTErugby pic.twitter.com/fojq77t4rx
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) February 18, 2026
"I think reaching out to the guys that have been there and done that before and have played at the highest level, it's really important just to get a couple of things that hopefully you can implement into your game and hopefully that can relate into performance then," he added.
Moving O’Toole across the scrum has been something the Irish coaches have been interested in for some time.
It's notable on a matchday team sheet how almost every Irish prop is listed as being qualified to play both sides of the scrum, something that will help avoid uncontested setpieces in the event of injury or cards, and O’Toole has long been listed as able to prop righty and lefty.
He came off the bench for Ireland in a November Test against Fiji in 2024, and started for Ireland A in their defeat to England A 12 months ago, but Ulster have been reluctant to change his jersey number.
And while he’s reluctant to predict what side he will feature on long-term, he will be making sure to keep up his training reps on both.
"I've obviously had a little bit of exposure [to loosehead] over the last couple of years behind the scenes, up at Ulster, training at loosehead, scrum sessions.
"When there's been talks about doing loosehead, it’s always something I keep chipping away at behind the scenes, keep working at it.
"So, to get an opportunity I was delighted to put that training into performance. I was just absolutely delighted to get an opportunity.
"It was John Fogarty who gave me the idea and to be honest I hadn't really put too much thought into it.
"I'd last played loosehead at school, I did a little bit at U-20s, so it's something that probably wasn't in my mind. I think early on in my career with Ulster anyway I was just trying to nail down a spot at tighthead, but obviously Fogs sparked that idea and to be honest it gave me a lot of excitement because it's something new, something challenging.
"When you look at the likes of South Africa who have guys that can cover across the board, I feel like if I can cover across the board whether it's province or international, that can only be a real positive thing and a positive thing for the group going forward as well," he added.
Born in Drogheda, O’Toole moved to Australia with his family at an early age, but returned to Ireland as a teenager where he attended Campbell College in Belfast, eventually joining the Ulster academy.
First capped by Ireland in 2021, O’Toole was part of the squad for the 2023 World Cup, but has featured sporadically since, one of several victims of Ulster’s poor form in those two seasons since.
"It's probably something I wasn't doing the last couple of years, it probably wasn't where I wanted to be.
"But definitely, this year it helps when the team is performing really well.
"Obviously with Ulster you see guys like Stu [McCloskey] and Cat [Rob Baloucoune], getting their opportunities around and how well they've been playing for the provincial side.
"Being out of this group and then being back in, I'm just really enjoying it. I really want to enjoy each and every day with this group and cherish those moments.
"I maybe didn't play as much as other guys but I was in that group for a good few years and was a part of that Grand Slam winning team [2023], went off to the World Cup," he added.
However, with the province looking rejuvenated under Richie Murphy, the prop has played a major role in that, enjoying one of his best seasons, both in the setpiece and in around the pitch.
"I'm 27 now, so coming into the next few good years in my career, I'm really looking to push.
"Coming off a good season but also hopefully so far and then coming into this environment, I just feel like I'm in a good place," O’Toole continued.
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