We must shatter stigma of mental health: O’toole

Tighthead hails Porter and reveals own battles after Ulster breakthrough

THEY may play on the opposite sides of the scrum for Ireland, but prop Tom O’toole has found himself on the same side as team-mate Andrew Porter when it comes to mental health.

Porter was one of the stars of Netflix’s Six Nations documentary Full Contact and received widespread praise for opening up about his mental health struggles both on and off the pitch, highlighting the trials and tribulations that professional sportspeople can go through.

And O’toole is aiming to have a similar impact by backing the Pieta Darkness Into Light campaign, in association with Electric Ireland, which is aiming to raise funds to support suicide prevention measures through 13 walks at sunrise on Saturday, May 11 across Northern Ireland.

“It’s really important,” says the Ulster tighthead.

“For males generally, we’ve read the statistics and they don’t look great. It’s not the way, bottling it up.

“With my experiences with mental health in rugby, there has been a stigma around it for years, but now we have to break through and be more open and honest with our feelings.

“You see a guy like Andrew Porter talking about it, he’s an inspiration for a lot of rugby players to be able to speak freely about things like that. I’ve worked with Ports for years now and he’s an extremely nice guy. In that environment it’s easy not to show emotion or make it look like you’re on top of everything.

“To make yourself vulnerable like that and be able to not just share your emotions with your team-mates but the public, it’s a great example. Anyone should be able to talk and share how you’re feeling — you gain nothing by bottling it up.”

Just recently, O’toole spoke about how he feels he has matured as a player since he first broke into the line-up at Ulster and he admits dealing with his mental health was part of that.

“When I first came in I tried not to give too much away with regards to my thoughts and my feelings,” he admits.

“But part of sharing your thoughts is showing your emotions. For a lot of the guys it’s a big step but it’s ultimately one you need to take.

“I’ve found opening up to my peers and the psychologists with Ulster and Ireland has helped with not just performances and managing the highs and lows of rugby, but also helping with being a happier person and discovering who you are.

“Part of that maturing process is discovering being vulnerable is okay.”

Right now there is plenty for O’toole and his Ulster teammates to navigate on and off the pitch as the club goes through plenty of turmoil, coping with the sackings of Dan Mcfarland and Jonny Petrie.

Interim head coach Richie Murphy has already tried to water down expectations after Saturday’s Challenge Cup exit at the hands of Clermont, which perhaps wouldn’t sit so well with some players, let alone one who has signed a new three-year deal at the club like O’toole.

But the prop insists he is excited for what is to come, particularly with the new responsibilities he has found for himself within the squad.

“For me, I’d consider myself fairly young still even though I’ve been around for a few years now,” he says.

“It’s the position the club is in at the minute. Every club goes through those transitional periods. A few years ago we went to a few Semi-finals, did well in Europe, so we had a good few years. You have to take the highs with the lows and work through it as a team.

“Certainly my role has changed over the last couple of years because of the transition of the squad, I’ll need to step up and help a lot of the younger guys manage that step up into the senior set-up. I’ll have to learn that but it’s an exciting period.

“It’s been a mad year but ultimately there will be stability at some stage and it will come right. Right now, we just want to get back competing at the top level of Europe.

“There’s a couple of guys who will be there for that length of time so it’s our responsibility to drive that standard to get back to that point.”