Andy Farrell suggested the 27-year-old was dealing with a “stinger” in his shoulder when he was brought off on the hour mark, by which point the Ireland head coach had seen enough to be well impressed by the debutant.<\/p>\n
That injury isn’t expected to hinder him in any way this week, with a feeling his abrasive style pf play could be just what’s required off the bench against the All Blacks.<\/p>\n
Farrell praised how the Jansen “attacked” the game on Saturday night. Within the opening two minutes, the powerful back row had put in a barrelling carry over the gainline, while there was also a crunching tackle, which should have settled any nerves.<\/p>\n
The big question now is whether the New Zealand native has done enough to earn a second cap at Eden Park this week, where Ireland\u2019s hosts haven\u2019t lost for 32 years.<\/p>\n
“It would be a dream man, it would be a dream, especially to break that record at Eden Park,” Jansen (below) said about the prospect of being involved against the All Blacks.<\/p>\n
![\"11](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0024afd3-614.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
“We’ll see what happens next week but I can’t wait to get involved in the week.<\/p>\n
“I want more and more [caps]. This is only the start, it’s not the ceiling, so I want more and more.”<\/p>\n
Born in Dunedin, Jansen has been qualified for Ireland since birth, with grandparents on his mother\u2019s side of the family from Belfast and Monasterevin.<\/p>\n
He joined Connacht in 2023 from the Leicester Tigers, and while he didn’t feature a lot for the province that season, he did quickly get on the radar of the Irish coaches, involved with Emerging Ireland in 2024, before a couple of appearances for Ireland A led to a full call-up to the squad this summer, and a debut last Saturday.<\/p>\n
“I think last season it [playing for Ireland] was definitely something that I really wanted,” Jansen added.<\/p>\n
“It was always something I wanted to do. It was the reason I signed in Ireland. I’ve been supporting Ireland since I was a kid.<\/p>\n
“My mum’s full-Ireland, we’ve always been in a half-Irish household and it was always a dream but it was kind of one of the ones you didn’t know [would happen].<\/p>\n
“Then I think this season with Stu [Lancaster] coming in with Connacht and the way we’ve been going, it’s just given me more and more confidence and it’s gave the boys confidence and I just felt good out there. I loved it.<\/p>\n
“It was brilliant giving my mum a call and telling her.”<\/p>\n
![\"11](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0024afd4-614.jpg\"\/)
\n(L-R) Ireland’s Sean Jansen, alongside his father Fred, mother Kathleen, brother Ciaran and uncle Luke<\/p>\n
Sensing Ireland\u2019s meeting with Japan could be the day, Jansen\u2019s parents, Kathleen and Fred had their trip to Newcastle booked, while a handful of his friends from back in Dunedin also made the trip up to watch him earn his first cap.<\/p>\n
His uncle, Luke, also made the trip, the same uncle that convinced Jansen to put together a highlights reel of himself several years ago, which eventually led to him being signed by Leicester.<\/p>\n
“He came to my jersey presentation on Thursday and he had a bit of a tear in his eye. But it’s just been one of those weeks. It\u2019s been amazing.<\/p>\n
“Without him, who knows where I would be. It’s just kind of a full circle moment, especially to play here and being close to where my family live.<\/p>\n
“It’s hard to put into words, it’s a dream come true really. Couldn’t have gone any better really.<\/p>\n
![\"11](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0024addd-614.jpg\"\/)
\nSean Jansen was man of the match in Saturday’s win against Japan<\/p>\n
“Obviously we’re very Irish and had a load of Irish family here as well, but it’s just cool that it was a small flight for them to come over,” Jansen said.<\/p>\n
Returning to New Zealand, the Sean Jansen fan club at Eden Park this week could be even bigger.<\/p>\n
“The manager is probably going to give me a bit of stick, because I need about 30 or 40 tickets if I’m playing in that game,” he laughed.<\/p>\n
“We’ll just flow into next week. Faz [Farrell] was just talking, we’re lucky to be able to go there and play at Eden Park.<\/p>\n
“Not many teams get to play at Eden Park, so it’s a massive opportunity for us to come and hopefully break that record.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his own words, last week was the “best” of Sean Jansen’s life. This one could could top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-548500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}