Tom O’Toole: I always wanted to play rugby in Ireland

Tom O’Toole training with the Irish squad last year in Dublin

It’s funny how life takes you in different directions. If the O’Toole family had not decided to up sticks from Ratoath, Co. Meath. and head for Australia, their son Tom may never have played rugby.

He was just six years old at the time, and with his father an exiled Dublin football supporter, a sporting upbringing in Gaelic games seemed to be O’Toole’s destiny yet 18 years later, the Drogheda-born, Brisbane-raised Meath man is in Ireland’s Guinness Six Nations squad and champing at the bit for a Test debut in the coming weeks.

The speed of Tadhg Furlong’s comeback from 13 months out of the game, which ended on Saturday when he started for Leinster at Scarlets, may determine whether O’Toole is involved this Sunday when Ireland open their 2021 campaign in Wales. 

One of three tighthead props in Andy Farrell’s squad, if first-choice Furlong is considered too much of a risk this weekend, the uncapped O’Toole could be in line for bench duty behind Andrew Porter, finally realising the dream that was sparked by his family’s work-related move Down Under and the subsequent decision as a teenager to attend boarding school in Belfast and immerse himself in rugby.

From playing football and hurling with his older brothers, Brisbane life introduced him to a range of sports including volleyball and basketball.

“Ultimately with my body shape I think rugby naturally took over when I was about 10 or 12. I realised that was what I wanted to do, that would be my main sport,” O’Toole said from Ireland camp at the weekend.

“The Australian lifestyle on the east coast there is pretty nice with the beaches and the weather. It was a pretty attractive place to live. But ultimately I wanted to come home, I always wanted to play rugby in Ireland, I wanted to experience schooling here and obviously play schools rugby.

“It was a dream of mine back in Australia. It was something that I didn’t think would actually happen. But when the opportunity arose with Ulster, it was an unbelievable opportunity to get.”

It was an Irishman, an U14 coach in Brisbane called Johnny McMurphy, from Bangor, who helped O’Toole scratch the itch, getting the prop into the Irish Exiles system and then a family trip led to a meeting with Ulster academy manager Kieran Campbell.

“I took the trip up and discussed a few things there in Belfast with Ulster. I returned back to Australia after a few weeks, didn’t think much about it as well, just thought what an experience it was, a great opportunity to go in and see one of the provinces and see the set-up, it was an unbelievably professional set-up and was I blown away by it.

“A few months after that, I got in contact with Kieran again and he said, ‘Look if you’re thinking about coming, maybe it’s best to put you in for a couple of years in school, thinking of university and college and stuff.’

“Leaving school probably would have been an easier transition for me, settling myself in Belfast for a couple of years, playing school rugby and going in.

‘I had a week to decide and I just thought I’d take the opportunity. So that’s how I ended up at Ulster.

“I didn’t really have much to think about, I had a week to decide and I just said, ‘ I’ll go for it, it’s exactly what I wanted from a young age.’

“I shifted off to Campbell College, did a couple of years in boarding school there. It was unbelievable, Brian Robinson the ex-Ireland international was my coach so it was a lovely two years.

“It was one of those two years you reflect on, I really enjoyed my school rugby, I really loved Belfast, it became home quite quickly.

“That’s my story to date and I’ve settled in nicely. The lockdown gave me the time to look back on it, it’s been a pretty good transition for myself and something I’m proud of.”

O’Toole came close to a Test debut in last year’s Six Nations before Covid-19 intervened and by the time the autumn internationals arrived, he had been sidelined by an ankle injury sustained last September in Ulster’s PRO14 final loss to Leinster. Patience has been an asset under the circumstances and the lay-off has not swayed O’Toole’s belief he is ready for Test rugby should the call come this time around.

“Andy’s a very intelligent coach so I don’t think he would bring me in, especially when there’s only five props, if he didn’t believe in me. And I think his belief and the coaches’ belief gives me an extreme amount of belief and confidence.

“I haven’t played international, I haven’t been capped before so it’s one of those areas where it’s a bit unknown, but I think with myself, compared to being in the camp last year, the transition and the growth I’ve had within the year, and the people around me, the leaders that I have such as Cian Healy and hopefully Tadhg now when he returns, if I do get the opportunity I think I’ll be ready to perform.”