O’Toole was promoted to Ireland’s matchday squad for the All Blacks match after Finlay Bealham started at tight prop due to Tadhg Furlong’s injury.
It was a big game for O’Toole, who made just one appearance off the bench in this year’s Six Nations and then sat out the summer’s two Test series against the Springboks in South Africa.
The Drogheda native said suffering a concussion shortly after being introduced was “really hard”, but insisted he wouldn’t do anything differently if he were in the same situation.
“Especially when you play against the All Blacks at home, how big the game is, you come in and get a scrum and a carry within two minutes and you feel like you’re in the game. All of a sudden you’re out.” O’Toole said.
“Unfortunately I don’t remember much after that. Looking back on it, it’s definitely quite disappointing.
“Without being too vulgar, that’s rugby. That’s the game, that’s what happens. (I) watched it probably 100 times to see if there was something that could have been done differently, but unfortunately you can’t actually do that.
“I just got caught. Like I said, I wish I could have done something differently, but I don’t think I would have done anything differently if I had caught him again.”
