Zoe Aldcroft hails outgoing Sean Lynn after delivering perfect send-off

Gloucester Hartpury captain Zoe Aldcroft hailed outgoing head coach Sean Lynn after he rounded off his tenure with a third consecutive title.

Lynn is taking over as Wales coach but bowed out in the best possible fashion, guiding his team to a 34-19 win over Saracens to complete a historic ‘three-peat’.

Aldcroft, who will captain England in a Guinness Women’s Six Nations campaign for the first time in the coming weeks, was delighted they could give the coach the send-off he deserved.

“It is so emotional but I am buzzing that we managed to get the third title for him,” she said.

“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. 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 and that’s what we really pride ourselves on at Gloucester-Hartpury.”

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The Circus had a roaring start to the game with Kate Williams scoring their first try within three minutes but were left trailing by 14 points within 25 minutes as Saracens came back strongly.

This included a penalty try awarded after Gloucester collapsed a lineout maul, leaving them a player light for 10 minutes.

But the reigning champions surged back with two unconverted tries, courtesy of Emma Sing and Hannah Jones, reducing the deficit to 19-15, before pulling away in the second period.

Aldcroft said: “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 that 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.”

The Circus did just that, scoring three tries in the second half whilst holding off the Sarries from scoring any further points to win 34-19 and secure their third title.

The victory marked the end of an era not just for Lynn, but also Kathryn Buggy, who played her last game before retirement.

“We are just absolutely buzzing with that,” Aldcroft added.

“We had a deeper level that we wanted to go for with Lynny leaving and Buggy retiring.

“There was something deeper we had to fight for and we did that.”