ULSTER AND Ireland prop Tom O’Toole knows exactly what’s coming for this evening’s opening festive interprovincial clash with Munster, regardless of where both teams currently find themselves in the URC table.

“With Munster, it’s always physical and confrontational so they are going to try and go after you at every opportunity,” says the 26-year-old prop, who plays tighthead at Ulster but is undergoing a conversion to the other side of the scrum with Ireland.

“It’s what we would expect from Munster no matter who’s playing for them.

“It’s our job to stop feeling sorry for ourselves,” adds the Drogheda native of his adopted province’s current predicament.

Ulster have lost four on the bounce — their two most recent defeats being in the Champions Cup at the hands of holders Toulouse and Bordeaux-Begles — and Richie Murphy badly needs a result tonight against a Munster team one place below them in the table in 11th.

“I’m just looking to get through this weekend and get a win,” said O’Toole who starts at tighthead this evening and who played professionally for the first time at loosehead in last month’s Test against Fiji.

“A couple of wins can boost the young guys’ confidence as well as with myself and everybody here, it could make a big difference,” he added looking ahead of tonight with Munster and then the following weekend the trip to Connacht.

He won three more Ireland caps at the recent Autumn Series and cites the help provided in camp by Cian Healy and Andrew Porter as being hugely beneficial as he tried out the switch from tighthead to loosehead for that Fiji game.

“Cian was good to me over the Autumn Nations, and I’d be quite close with him.

“He was a big help to me especially that Fiji week, leading into that game.

“I’m very close with Andrew as well and picking his brains as he did this exactly (switching from tighthead to loosehead) and it’s been pretty seamless.”

One of those recent caps was against New Zealand though O’Toole only lasted two minutes after being concussed in a collision.

“You come on, get a scrum, get a carry and then you feel you’re in the game and suddenly, you’re out.

“I’ve probably watched it (the clip) over 100 times to see if I could have done anything differently, but I just got caught and… I think it was hip or back, I wish I could have done something differently, but I don’t think I would have done anything differently if I had it again.

“Look, that’s rugby, that’s the game, that’s what happens.”