Coming into this Guinness Six Nations Tom O'Toole was already an established international player, with 17 international caps, a Grand Slam and a World Cup behind him.
But in many ways, the 27-year-old was Ireland’s breakout star of the championship.
The Ulster prop had seen his Test gametime shrink in the last 18 months, with Thomas Clarkson overtaking him in the depth chart at tighthead prop, and while the Irish coaching ticket had toyed with the idea of swapping him over to loosehead previously, they never fully committed to the move, aside from one bench appearance against Fiji in 2024, and an Ireland A start just over a year ago.
A loosehead injury crisis forced their hand this season, and O’Toole backed-up Jeremy Loughman from the bench in the wins against Italy and England, before he was promoted to the starting role for the final two wins of the championship after an injury to the Munster man.
He impressed in his first three games, but saved his best for yesterday at Aviva Stadium in Ireland's 43-21 win against Scotland to secure the Triple Crown.
Their previously worrying scrum looked in control and had a 100% return from six put-ins, while O’Toole won an early penalty off Zander Fagerson, which was the platform for Ireland’s opening try.
"The Tom O'Toole thing is amazing," a delighted Andy Farrell (above) said afterwards.
"It's amazing what he's done, he should be unbelievably proud of himself because it's a tough thing to do [switching from tighthead to loosehead], but how he's handled it, and you saw the scrum today, how he stood up is a fantastic story."
As well as being solid as a rock at the setpiece, the Ulster prop was tireless around the pitch; his 20 tackles in a 65-minute shift was the second highest in the Ireland team.
"It's a whole bit of a blur, I felt like I kind of got around and I got busy anyway," O’Toole said of his defensive shift.
"So to get 20 tackles, that's pretty good. We knew it was going to require a pretty defensive performance.
"I'd seen Scotland last week in that high-scoring game against France, so I put myself in the best possible position to make those tackles. I guess it was pretty good, but yeah, I kept myself busy."
While O’Toole (below) wasn’t in the Test rugby wilderness before this championship, he had been scrambling around the fringes for gametime.
He didn’t feature in the 2025 Autumn Nations Series or the Six Nations that season, with his only appearance of last year coming on the summer tour match away to Portugal.
And once he sensed an opportunity would come his way this year, the Drogheda native was determined to make his mark.
"The last couple of years I probably didn't feel particularly where I wanted to be with my own personal game, and my enjoyment of rugby.
"Not being in that group allowed me to kind of 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.
"And fortunately enough, I played well enough for my province to get selected within the squad.
"From going into this campaign to where it is now, it's been an absolute journey for me, but extremely pleasing," he added.
And the versatile front rower also shed some light on his head coach’s man-management behind the scenes.
"It's phenomenal, being within this environment. Faz [Farrell] is an incredible coach. He's an incredible motivator.
"He spoke to me a few times throughout this campaign, one-on-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 try not to give myself any excuses.
"I just did my utmost to play for this team and then to play for the coaches because they create an unbelievable environment that you want to perform and you have to perform.
"I'm extremely honoured and extremely grateful to get that from Andy."
The challenge facing both O’Toole and Farrell is that the prop will most likely be back at tighthead when he returns to Ulster in the coming weeks, even if the Irish management see his future on the other side of the scrum.
Whichever side he plays at going forward, O’Toole has almost certainly punched his ticket for the Nations Championship tour to Australia and New Zealand next summer.
And after Ireland’s impressive finish to the Six Nations, he believes the squad are building nicely 18 months out from a World Cup.
"I believe we're in a really good place. This Six Nations has been really competitive. I think we've been shown that in all the performances.
"Italy have come on incredibly well. Wales showed a really spirited performance last week and that was a real tough physical game.
"That first week against France, we were fairly disappointed, but to where we are now, I think we've built really nicely throughout the weeks. We've played some proper Test matches, they've been really tough.
"It's no small achievement to win a Triple Crown as well. To get that achievement today is extremely pleasing. We'll go back to our provinces now and we'll play.
"Hopefully, that leads us in a really good place to build during summer," he said.
