OLI JAGER DIDN’T move back home from New Zealand specifically to play for Ireland but instead to be closer to family and friends having missed so many milestones over the past decade.

But things dovetailed perfectly on Saturday at the Aviva Stadium, where his mum, one of his brothers, and his uncles were on hand to see their family etched into the national-team tapestry as Jager made his test debut off the bench against Wales.

There were wonderful moments shared on the pitch after Ireland’s 31-7 success, with Jager’s mum Theresa and his wife Georgie embracing Ireland’s newest international, a Blackrock College graduate who once upon a time missed out on a spot in Leinster’s academy and upped sticks for New Zealand in pursuit of just a professional contract.

And there was no point in minimising the significance of the moment any longer: the new Munster tighthead, visibly moved, could finally let it out.

“It’s a hard thing to put into words,” Jager said. “Obviously proud. Its such a wonderful feeling to get that first cap and against such a great team in Wales and in the Six Nations too. I have no words to describe it. I’m over the moon.

I’d been just putting it off for the whole week, just playing it down so I don’t get too nervous before the game. I felt it when the anthems came on and I just managed to push it back down. After the game, then, I was just in all sorts. I didn’t shed a tear but I definitely got a bit more emotional.

“I’ve been out of Ireland for so long and the fact that I’m home now… it has been a whirlwind couple of months. I’ve made my debut for Munster and now for Ireland so it’s been hard to get used to and get everything back into one place.

“It’s definitely the journey I’ve been on”, Jager added of the personal significance to his debut, “and going from not getting into the academy when I came out of school to going to New Zealand to making the Crusaders academy, playing for Crusaders, and eventually building up a reputation enough to come home.

“It all feels full circle.”

There were times along that diameter when Jager felt as though the boat had sailed on playing for his native country. On several occasions during his Crusaders career, he wondered if he had left it too late to come home and make a sufficient impact in Irish rugby to be considered for selection.

It was Jager who eventually put the word out that he wanted to move to one of the provinces and Munster, who had previously shown an interest in bringing him back to these shores, felt like the ideal fit.

Jager has played just six times for the southern province, twice in the Champions Cup, but believes the Stephen’s Day fixture against Leinster especially — in which he gave as good as he got in the scrum to Andrew Porter — was pivotal in his immediate summons to Andy Farrell’s international fold.

He never imagined it would happen so quickly.

“This has been a whirlwind. I think I’ve spent more time in hotels than I have in my own house but its been fantastic. I wouldn’t change anything for the world.

“Maybe its better to be thrown into the deep end to see if you sink or swim because if you let it go, it can go on too long and things just get built up and frustration builds or whatever. It’s been fast but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It isn’t easy. It’s a whole new way of playing.

I’ve had to do a lot of study, a lot of sit-downs with the players and the coaches and trying to get my head around it. I’d say I’m about 80% there.

“There’s a couple of things that I need to get a bit more comfortable with but what makes it is easier for me is that rugby is a game. If someone is carrying the ball, you tackle them, and if you’re carrying it, you try to run over them.

“If I simplify it, then it makes it a bit easier to learn rather than having to overthink things.”