THOUGH TOM O’Toole is back in the senior Ireland squad for the forthcoming Six Nations, he feels there is a point to prove with Ulster in the URC this weekend as the province head to bottom side Scarlets.

The tighthead prop, whose brief Ireland experiment as a loosehead looks to be behind him, is determined to be part of an improved Ulster set-piece when they travel to Llanelli to face the struggling side coached by former Ulster personnel Dwayne Peel and Jared Payne.

Ulster’s lineout came under notable strain in last weekend’s Challenge Cup pool-clinching 26-19 win over Stade Francais, as did their scrum at times and O’Toole wants to put this right before heading to Ireland camp.

“I’m sure Scarlets saw that Stade put us under a bit of pressure, and they’ll be trying to replicate that because obviously not getting lineout ball and not getting our attack going at certain stages stops your momentum.

“It puts a little bit of a target on (your back) but we talked about just going back to our process which has been successful for large parts of this year,” said the 27-year-old.

“Two games to go before the Six Nations block so I’m sure they (the Scarlets) will be looking to turn things around mid-season.

“They’ve beaten Glasgow and Cardiff this year (Scarlets’ only wins) which shows that they can be really dangerous,” he maintained.

As for having played both sides of the scrum, the 17-times capped Test player experimented with it in national camp and played loosehead against Fiji in November 2024, the situation now appears to be that O’Toole is staying on the right-hand side of the set piece.

“I’ll maybe do it (play loosehead) if asked, but no, there’s been no chat or anything like that not from Ulster or from my end,” he maintains.

“It’s still a great position to be in, people believe in you to hopefully play both sides and certainly Ireland did anyway.

“You look at South Africa and how powerful their set-piece is, and you see the likes of Thomas du Toit and a few other individuals that can cover across the front row.

“Having that in your armoury, especially for Ireland going into the likes of World Cups and that down the line, I think it’s important to have that.”

“I was very pleased with the experience; it was something new in my career.

“But coming back to tighthead felt like putting on your old pair of shoes, it’s kind of comfy.”

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Scarlets

15. Blair Murray
14. Tom Rogers
13. Eddie James
12. Joe Hawkins
11. Ellis Mee
10. Sam Costelow
9. Archie Hughes

1. Kemsley Mathias
2. Ryan Elias
3. Archer Holz
4. Sam Lousi
5. Harvey Cuckson
6. Taine Plumtree
7. Josh Macleod (capt)
8. Fletcher Anderson

Replacements:

16. Marnus van der Merwe
17. Josh Morse
18. Henry Thomas
19. Jac Price
20. Jarrod Taylor
21. Dane Blacker
22. Johnny Williams
23. Macs Page

Ulster Rugby

15. Michael Lowry
14. Robert Baloucoune
13. James Hume
12. Stuart McCloskey
11. Werner Kok
10. Jack Murphy
9. Nathan Doak

1. Angus Bell
2. Tom Stewart
3. Tom O’Toole
4. Iain Henderson (capt)
5. Charlie Irvine
6. David McCann
7. Nick Timoney
8. Bryn Ward 

Replacements:

16. Rob Herring
17. Eric O’Sullivan
18. Scott Wilson
19. Harry Sheridan
20. Matthew Dalton
21. Conor McKee
22. Jake Flannery
23. Jude Postlethwaite