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Sean Lynn: 'To have my family in that huddle, dreams do come true'
As Gloucester Hartpury became the first women’s Premiership team to win three consecutive titles, so ended Sean Lynn’s 24-year stint with Hartpury and Gloucester.
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From 9 am the next day, he officially transitioned away from leading The Circus into his role as Wales Women’s Head Coach as they prepare for their opening round of the Women’s Six Nations against Celtic rivals Scotland.
At the Women’s Six Nations launch, Lynn spoke of his desire to create a ‘family’ within the Welsh team – connecting the past, present, lost, and future members of the family.
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“When I was going into the Wales camp, I was talking about how I’m really big about togetherness and that’s not just about players, it’s the staff environment as well, making sure that we’re one big family,” he said at the launch event earlier in the month.
“Everybody’s got a goal, it can’t just be the players on that. I relate everything – our attack, our defence, is all about the family.”
The theme of family was also omnipresent on Sunday, quite literally at points as Lynn’s parents, wife, and children joined the team huddle and were an integral part of the celebrations, as well as a true sense of togetherness seen more widely by the bonds created within the team.
Lynn, who donned a curly red and white wig and a t-shirt commemorating their three-peat, said to media after the match: “They’re [each PWR victory] all as good as they come. I said it in the huddle at the end, to have my family in that huddle, dreams do come true, and to finish this five-year stint off with Gloucester Hartpury winning the three-peat, it’s very special. And I can’t fault them. The players, the staff, very, very special club.”
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Gloucester’s eventual 34-19 victory didn’t come without its challenges – with Saracens going 19-5 up in the first half, before going into the break 19-15. After a galvanising half-time team talk however, Gloucester Hartpury denied Saracens any points in the second half and added 19 points to their own tally.
“I think the girls might have said – I did throw a rocket in there at half-time because it wasn’t us. I knew we had to make it happen. The most frustrating part, what we spoke about in the week, we just weren’t delivering that,” Lynn said.
“Full credit to Sarries, we knew coming here would be a tough task. I just think when you’ve got senior players like Lleucu George, Mo Hunt, building that momentum, gathering that territorial gain, and we just suffocated Saracens and that’s what we wanted to do in the second half.”
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The club are yet to announce Lynn’s successor, but the Welshman was confident that those involved with the most dominant side in the league for the past three years will continue to drive success as he leaves the Circus.
Among those is former Gloucester player James Forrester, who was made Gloucester Hartpury CEO in 2023 before being named Gloucester’s commercial sales director, in a move that means all of the PWR club’s commercial rights will shift to Gloucester Rugby.
“I think this club will still have the minerals there and the ingredients that you want to be a good club. They’ve still got it, and I think whoever comes in will keep this club moving forward. I know James Forrester who is CEO will be driving that as well and the staff will all want to drive it. It’s very exciting times,” the new Wales coach said.
There’s no let up for the ‘King of Hartpury’ following the three-peat – with his tenure with Wales beginning in what’s set to be the biggest year for women’s rugby to date. First up is the Six Nations, in which Lynn’s first home game will take place at the Principality against an England likely to feature many of his former players.
Wales will then travel to Australia in July, where they will play two Tests against the Wallaroos during the men’s British and Irish Lions tour.
They will begin their Rugby World Cup 2025 campaign against Scotland at Salford Community Stadium on 23 August before facing Canada and Fiji – coached by Wales Lynn’s predecessor Ioan Cunningham – in their Pool B fixtures.
With seemingly no time to pause and reminisce about his Gloucester-Hartpury departure, Lynn admitted that it will probably sink in later in the year.
He said: “I’ve been there 24 years and it felt strange. But because I’ve got to go Six Nations on Monday and then I’m going into prepping for the World Cup, we’re going to Australia and then we’re going into the World Cup, I think it will hit me in October when PWR does start back up and I’m in the stands watching PWR players from Wales.
Gloucester co-captain Zoe Aldcroft, who was named England captain earlier in the year, has known Lynn since she was 16.
“It is super emotional but I am buzzing that we managed to get the third title for him. He’s been unbelievable for us and built that legacy. No team has done that before. I’m super proud that we could do it for him today,” she said.
“He’s just made sure we are in this together. When we step on that pitch, we fight for each other, we don’t let anyone go it alone. That is what he has created. He has made us create those bonds off-pitch as well. He has been fantastic in bringing us all together and we’ve got good people in a good place. That’s what we really pride ourselves on at Gloucester-Hartpury.”
Emotions were naturally high in the build-up to the final, with a history-making three-peat on the line as well as it being the head coach’s last match and club stalwart Kathryn Buggy’s swan song before retirement – but the team had to focus on the task in the hand.
“We are just absolutely buzzing with that. We had a deeper level that we wanted to go for today with Lynny leaving and Buggy retiring. There was something deeper we had to fight for today,” Aldcroft said.
“We said at the start of today to put all that emotion aside, we had a job to do. In the first half, we made it a little bit tough for ourselves, which we love doing in finals, but we had a bit of a rocket at half-time and in the second half we knew we had to react to that and come out harder than we had before.
“We pride ourselves on that when we know we’ve got a job to do, we switch on. We focus on what needs to be done in that moment. We had an emotional week, and I think we needed it because it didn’t feel like a final week. I don’t know if that is because the Six Nations is coming next week. When we arrived, we just knew that the job needed to be done and to put that emotion aside.”
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