Ulster coach Dan McFarland hails Tom O’Toole attitude after victory over Cheetahs

O’Toole has been part of Andy Farrell’s extended squad for the Championship, he was released back to Ulster for the Pro14 with the Cheetahs.

O’Toole was on the bench for his province but was pressed into action after Marty Moore left the fray with a knock to the head after five minutes.

O’Toole got Ulster’s first try in 20-10 victory earning praise from McFarland.

“Any of those players benefit from that (Ireland camp), as long as they have a certain type of character, which is ‘I’m humble but I’m going to work hard and show exactly what I can do’,” said McFarland.

“That allows them then to learn off the people around them, who wouldn’t go and learn from John Fogarty, who is the scrum coach there? Learning from Tadhg Furlong, scrummaging in training sessions against Cian Healy... who isn’t going to learn from that? Sorry, some people might not.

“But if you’re going with the right attitude, and if you’ve done enough to earn your place, then you probably do have the right attitude, and he certainly does - Tom is a smiling assassin.

“He took his try well, he tried to barrel through the post to score it; he actually said to me in the changing room after that the post was a good defender there! It took a chunk out of his shoulder.

“He definitely benefited from that and Robert did as well when he was in there; they deserved their spots in there, they did enjoy it.”

The coach also thought Michael Lowry and James Hume excelled on their return after the duo hadn’t played since October.

“They work really hard when they’re out and they’re both really good players,” he said.

“When you think about the team we had out there - in terms of its youthfulness and inexperience - with Dave (Shanahan) playing at scrum-half and Bill Johnston, who’s very inexperienced as a 10, playing out there; James Hume hasn’t had many games this season; Robbie and Mikey Lowry and a couple of old heads out there in Lukey and Louis.”

Hooker Adam McBurney was 100 per-cent on his own throw and McFarland felt he is making the most of his opportunity with Rob Herring on Ireland duty.

“Adam played really well, it was the same last year at this time Rob Herring played these games at this time last year and was probably our best player at this stage last year,” he said.

“He came very single-minded into this period, when they stick a couple of games together, like Adam played last week as well and did a good job, he came this week and did a really good job.

(His) set piece (was) excellent, very busy around the park, it’s all money in the bank in terms of their experience, but it’s also really important for us.”

The victory over the Cheetahs put Ulster 10 points clear of the South Africans in Conference A but McFarland knows there is still a lot of work to be done if Ulster want a home tie in the play-offs.

“People talk about us being in a good position in Conference A, and we are, we’re in second place.

“What are we now, seven ahead of Glasgow? we’ve got to play them twice, now we’re ten ahead of Cheetahs, but, as we all know, (with) he Cheetahs’ fixture list, they’ll be banking a load of bonus points when they go and play at home, so it was important we won.”