ULSTER AND Ireland prop Tom O’Toole believes that the northern province could be peaking at just the right time as the season reaches the final round of URC games ahead of the play-offs.
Ulster will be away from home in the quarter-finals and Richie Murphy’s currently sixth-placed side will know come kick-off at leaders Munster on Saturday what is required of them, if anything, to guarantee Champions Cup rugby for next season by avoiding the possibility of an eighth-place finish in the URC.
“To go away to Thomond Park is a huge challenge to see where we are at,” said O’Toole though it is worth noting that the northern province will secure the URC’s Irish Shield should they win, “and we really hope to back that (the win over Leinster) up before going into the play-offs.
“We have had good performances and then dropped off within the week or the week after, so it is about building that consistency and that is what Richie (Murphy) expects from us,” he added as Ulster with four straight URC wins prepare to go to defending champions Munster who have already qualified for a home play-off and will be looking to finish top of the table.
The 25-year-old tighthead prop feels that Ulster’s recent run of form is something they are drawing belief from especially in what has been a turbulent campaign at the Kingspan Stadium.
“Billy (Burns) made a really good point (this week) saying that in previous years we haven’t peaked at the back end of the season,” stated O’Toole.
“We probably peaked start to mid-season and then we would have unfortunately dropped off near the back end in some years.
“But it feels that since Richie came in it took him a few weeks to build what he kind of wanted but hopefully we have that and we can now peak near the back end.”
13-times-Test-capped O’Toole will likely have a rival in the Ireland squad turning out for Munster as Oli Jager is expected to be on the tighthead side of the home team’s scrum.
“He has that New Zealand way of scrummaging,” he said of the former Crusaders player, “but is very talented and is a very good scrummager in his own right.
“I’d say there probably is a kind of individual motivation,” O’Toole states of his Jager’s rise in Andy Farrell’s squad, “but at this point of the season it is trying to get the win any way we can and doing my best to contribute to that team effort.”