Packing down against South African front rows in one of the most dauting tasks in rugby but Ulster prop Tom O’Toole will be doing exactly that in his next three games as Richie Murphy’s side face the Bulls in Belfast on Saturday night (7.45pm), followed by two games in the Rainbow Nation against the Sharks and Lions.

O’Toole will be up against Wilco Louw, who starts in the Bulls front row. The 22 stone, 6’1” tight head featured in all six Rugby Championship games as the Springboks claimed the Southern Hemisphere title, but O’Toole is just backing his own process.

“It's hard to really think too much when your head's in there, you know how much they pride themselves on set-piece,” he said.

"I think, obviously, at the Boks, it kind of starts from there and then all their four teams have similar mentalities in how they approach set-piece, whether it's maul or scrum.

placeholder image — Ulster prop Tom O'Toole faces a daunting task against the Bulls front row. (Photo by Arthur Allison/Pacemaker Press)

“I guess for us, it's meeting that challenge and not getting caught out on it, so, it'll be a good challenge this week for us.

“We've obviously got a couple of South Africans in the squad, so they can give you a good insight, but now we've played them over the last few years a good amount of times, home and away, it's always the same kind of challenge and you know what to expect.

“It's very confrontational, so, yeah, South African packs, this is the first one of three now over the next three weeks. We’ve got to trust the process of what we've done, the work over the pre-season,” O’Toole added.

“It's kind of just sticking to your process and just sticking to your kind of routine, and things can change as the game goes on, but I guess you won't really know fully until Saturday evening when it gets going.

"But, no, for us, it's just backing the process, the work that we've done and kind of keeping to that.”

O’Toole has ditched his scrum cap this season and explained the rationale behind the decision.

“I think I ended up taking it off a lot last year and it was kind of annoying me,” he said.

“I think the straps got loose at the back and then I think I accidentally put one in the washer as well and it went real soft, so, I didn't really have any at the start of the season, I forgot to order some.

“The ones I like, I think, come from New Zealand, so they take a good amount of time to arrive, but, no, I just kind of said, ‘look, just go without it’.

“It’s just psychological, I guess; I guess just that playing without it probably felt a little bit weird, but, no, not too weird. Just kind of didn't have it, so I really had no choice.”

O’Toole played 33 minutes at loosehead for Ireland against Fiji last autumn but at the moment he’s concentrating on tight head.

He added: “It's always something that's there, really, you know. I guess in my career, it's always something that I'd like to kind of keep in my arsenal, something that I kind of play around with every so often at training and just kind of talking with the loose heads about it every so often.

"But, like obviously we have still yet to Angus Bell to arrive, so we've got a little bit short on looseheads, so sometimes it's a nice opportunity to kind of slot over and just kind of try it a bit.

“For Ulster, they want me at tight head and that's where they want me.”

Ulster: 15-9 Jacob Stockdale, Robert Baloucoune, James Hume, Stuart McCloskey, Zac Ward, Jack Murphy, Nathan Doak; 1-8 Sam Crean, Rob Herring, Tom O’Toole, Iain Henderson (CAPT), Cormac Izuchukwu, David McCann, Nick Timoney, Juarno Augustus.

Replacements: Tom Stewart, Eric O’Sullivan, Scott Wilson, Harry Sheridan, Sean Reffell, Conor McKee, Jake Flannery, Jude Postlethwaite