Sean Jansen made his debut, had a couple of big involvements early on, scored a try, Ireland won and he received a man of the match award. So it didn’t seem unreasonable to wonder if last Saturday’s 36-20 win over Japan in Newcastle had been the best day of his career.But, no, the 27-year-old preferred to put it another way.“It’s been the best week of my life.”The reasons perhaps go a little deeper even than the debut, the try, the win and the gong.One was that extended family and friends were in attendance, including his parents Kathleen and Fred and his influential uncle Luke, but for whom the Jansen story might never have come to pass.“He was the one that made the highlights video for me that originally got me the contract in England, and so 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’s been amazing.”It’s been told before but it merits repeating in this week of all weeks. As he admitted in an interview last December, Jansen might have gone down a different path: “To be honest, I hung around with the wrong mates and got in a bit of trouble as a young person. I thought I could train hard and do whatever with your mates and be fine, but I was young and dumb and then I couldn’t really get into the Otago team.”Whereupon his uncle, who worked for the Institute of Sport in Canberra, suggested and then compiled a video highlights’ package of him.“Then he sent my highlight video around and then two weeks later I had a phone call from Steve Borthwick [Leicester coach at the time] and I was going to the Tigers. So, without him [uncle Luke] who knows where I would be. But it’s just kind of a full circle moment, especially to play here and being close to where my family live.“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.“It was brilliant giving my mum a call and telling her. She had pre-booked the flights just in case. My mum, my dad, my brother, my uncle and four or five of my best mates flew over from New Zealand.“I had a whole crew here and my mum and dad had only watched me play in two games ever professionally,” he said in reference to Connacht’s games in South Africa against the Lions and the Stormers in April last year. “And now they get to watch me play internationally, that’s cool.”Born and reared in Dunedin, Jansen’s maternal grandparents James Brown and Maura Foster hailed from Belfast and Monasterevin. They met on the boat taking them to New Zealand in their late teens.His mum, Kathleen, is a nurse who married Fred Jansen, a policeman, and they reared five kids (Ciarán, Emily, Eileen, Sean and Braeden) in the suburbs of Dunedin. He describes Dunedin as akin to Galway and one of the factors in signing for Connacht was to pursue his dream of playing for Ireland.Ireland's Jacob Stockdale, Sean Jansen and Jimmy O’Brien during the national anthem. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho “I’ve been supporting Ireland since I was a kid. 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 [could happen]. Then I think this season with Stu 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.“It’s a great time to be down west in Galway, but all the boys are so good, all the Leinster boys, the Ulster, the Munster boys that come together. It’s just such a great tight group, I’ve loved being on tour with the boys.”Sampling the Ireland ‘A’ environment in February last year was invaluable, but even so he’s been “blown away” in the last three weeks.“It’s just such an awesome environment to be involved in. We have great craic with each other, but it’s also very professional. Everyone keeps each other accountable to the standards that we hold ourselves to, and I just love being involved in it. I want more and more.”Jansen looks a live contender for a second cap against the All Blacks in the country of his birth.“It would be a dream man, it would be a dream, especially to break that [unbeaten] record at Eden Park. So, we’ll see what happens but I can’t wait to get involved in the week.”There’s only one caveat.“The manager, Mick Kearney, is probably going to give me a bit of stick because I need about 30-40 tickets if I’m playing in that game. “Not many teams get to play at Eden Park, so it’s a massive opportunity for us to come and hopefully break that record.”