Ever since he joined Connacht in 2023, Sean Jansen has cherished and chased a dream of playing for Ireland. It finally came to pass as one of three Connacht debutants with a try-scoring, man-of-the-match display in July’s win over Japan in Australia. He was again called upon a week later in a defeat against his native New Zealand. The taste of international rugby only makes him want it more.
With Caelan Doris to miss the remainder of the Nations Championship, Jansen is likely to enjoy more game time with Ireland in the autumn window. But while he makes no secret of his desire to do so, he knows those ambitions could become a distraction and has spoken to Stuart Lancaster about this potential issue.
His best means of doing so are to emulate, or even better, his outstanding form last season, when frequently rising to the occasion with big plays in big moments. In doing so, he became the first Connacht forward to end a campaign as the province’s leading try scorer with 12 to his name. Then, as he puts it, November will take care of itself.
Historic opening weekend ends in defeat for all Irish provinces
Besides, his ambitions for Connacht are just as grand.
READ MORE
“I think if you look [at the squad] on paper, there’s no reason why we can’t win the comp (URC), and why we can’t go well in the Champions Cup.
“I think a lot of people’s expectations of Connacht in the past, and maybe players in the past, has been maybe ‘hopefully we’ll win, hopefully we’ll win’. But f**k that really, do you know what I mean? We’ve got a very strong team, we’ve got loads of players that are in the Ireland team.
“Frawls (Ciaran Frawley) has come now, Will Connors has come now – big players. Josh Ioane has been at All Blacks. Our whole squad is very strong and there’s no reason why we can’t sit there in the top four. And then the Champions Cup, we’ve got Saracens coming, Toulouse at home, we want to be playing these big games. We don’t want to be in the Challenge Cup, respectfully. We want to be playing these big games.
“Last week, on the Friday, they had the 10-year reunion,” added Jansen in a reference to the 2016 Pro12 champions gathering at Dexcom Stadium before and after the loss to the Stormers. “And there’s no reason why in 10 years we can’t be doing the same thing.”
The flipside of being an international is that Jansen was one of seven summer tourists forced to sit out last Friday’s game, but he and others can expect to face Benetton on Friday in Treviso (kick-off 7.45pm Irish time).
“I think if our ball control was better, it could have been a completely different game,” he said of the defeat to the Stormers. “I think we’re building nicely and we’re not going to sit here and dwell on Friday too much. We’re obviously very gutted and very disappointed because we should have won, but it’s just on to next, and hopefully with a better block than we did last time.”
Recalling last season’s start, Jansen said: “We don’t want to be going into the November break with one win. We want to be coming in positive into that next block. We don’t want to do another January ‘turn it around’ and have a real good finish. We want to be coming into the end in the top four and we’re sitting comfortable, and we’ve got round of 16 in the Champions Cup.”
To that end, he accepts the pressure is on to win in Treviso, where they lost twice when last there three seasons ago.
“We need a win and I think even from the fans and everyone around, we expect to win. And that’s what we’re going to go do, and that’s what’s expected of us.”
While Jansen hasn’t played in the Stadio Monigo, drawing on his experience of twice playing Zebre away, he admitted Italian sides are invariably “a lot tougher” on home soil.
“Luckily we’re playing Friday night, so the weather hopefully won’t be as hot. But the Italians are passionate people. If you let them have their moments, and it’s a bit like playing in France, you let the crowd get into it, then they get up for it more.
“What we need to do is just go on there, play our game, stay calm, and just win moments, and then you take the crowd out of it. You take the emotion out of it.
“Sometimes you can get stuck into the crowd being on top of you. They get a moment and then you kind of go inward. We just need to stay on top, stay on top, and I think we should get the job done on Friday.”
