The Women’s Six Nations was an eye-opener for Welsh rugby.

After two successive third place finishes in the tournament, this year Wales ended up with the wooden spoon despite a final game win over Italy.

For Gloucester-Hartpury head coach Sean Lynn, that result against the Azzurri was a “massive sigh of relief” after being “blown away” against Scotland whilst he says there was a question about the “alignment” during a thrashing out in Ireland.

Lynn, a Welshman himself, coaches several of Ioan Cunningham’s Wales squad at Gloucester-Hartpury with no less than 11 of the squad part of Gloucester-Hartpury whilst Gwennan Hopkins is also a student at Hartpury University.

At club level, Gloucester-Hartpury have flourished as the reigning Premiership Women’s Rugby champions, going unbeaten in their first 15 games of the league this season.

“Results are looking amazing, but it’s not been that easy really,” says Lynn.

“When we went into playing Bristol and Saracens, we had 15 internationals injured and we came out on the right side of it, but we managed to give the youngsters opportunities and now it’s for me to manage them now.”

The plethora of youngsters is partly down to Gloucester-Hartpury’s programme and connection with Hartpury University.

“A few years ago, myself and James Forrester the CEO got ourselves together and said, ‘How have we got one of the best pathways in the world and we don’t keep them?’” says Lynn.

“Everyone knows the training age of some of these girls is quite low compared to the men’s game, but we try and keep these girls at Hartpury college and university to go to Gloucester-Hartpury, so I know they’ve had five years of training in the gym and also their skill development from the coaching staff, so we’re increasing their training age.

“We had a chat about how we could make this work, getting players who stay on, the likes of Nel Metcalfe and Hopkins.

“Metcalfe is very coachable. I was shocked when she first came in that every little bit of detail, I was telling her she would put that right. She’s got a lot to work on her game, but she’s 18 you’d expect that, and the girl can finish.

“I’m very excited as she’s an exciting talent.

“With Gwennan, in the women’s game you can see with certain individuals some of them join rugby late, but Hopkins has been brought up in rugby and understands it,” Lynn adds.

“She always has a smile on her face but works so so hard, I think Wales have a real star with Gwennan, but she needs to be managed.”

Metcalfe and Hopkins are just two of Wales’ side to come through the programme while national captain Hannah Jones and fly-half Lleucu George are also part of the Gloucester-Hartpury team.

This year was George’s first as the undisputed owner of Wales’ fabled no.10 jersey, with the 24-year-old having served her apprenticeship behind Elinor Snowsill and Robyn Wilkins in the past.

George is nicknamed 50:22 due to her booming boot, something she showcased to full effect in the win over Italy.

“We tailor our game to the players we’ve got,” said Lynn.

“Lleucu George flourishes for us, we know what her strengths are, and we utilise them, we take a lot of pride in our set-piece, we’re anchored by that and our territorial game.

“I’m loving Lleucu’s territorial game, she’s unique in the women’s game, I’m very impressed with how things are going.

“She’s developing her game in the club game but in the international world this is her first real Six Nations campaign in charge of the no.10 jersey. She’s a great individual around it and I could see her flourishing massively and growing into the international game.

“The more and more I saw her in the Six Nations campaign I saw her flourish. Yes, she missed some kicks to touch from penalties which are the ones you should be making but she’s making these momentum changers, the 50:22’s, kicks to turn the fullbacks.”

George’s half back partner at club is England scrum-half Natasha ‘Mo’ Hunt who Lynn lauds as “the world’s best number nine.”

“One thing we’ve said at Gloucester-Hartpury is we want Lleucu to take more of a lead and that goes for off the pitch as well,” says Lynn.

“The work she’s doing with the analyst and starting to lead our meetings, that didn’t happen before and it’s something we’re looking to grow, and girls being used to Lleucu’s voice because usually it was just Mo.

“One thing I challenged Lleucu on was ‘Why are you kicking that if we’ve got space?’ and she said, ‘If they don’t talk to us, I’ll kick it.’ So it’s about the girls outside talking to her.

“She’s only going to get better, having Keira Bevan and Sian Jones inside her but also the likes of Hannah Jones, Kerin Lake and Hannah Bluck outside her who need to make sure they’re helping her out as well, it can’t all come through the fly-half.”

While Gloucester-Hartpury’s success is grounded in a set-piece anchored by the likes of Sisilia Tuipulotu and Kelsey Jones along with England international Maud Muir, they also have the nickname “the circus” due to their attacking backs play.

“We talk about how we have a license to inspire, and we make sure we talk to our coaches to say that if the girls see space and want to use it then great but if they make mistakes and lose it then we can’t be on their backs,” says Lynn.

“We’re named the circus, and we want to be the cirque du soleil of the rugby world. We’ve had several meetings about that circus piece and our identity, and we take lots of pride about what that looks like.

“We need to be good at set-piece and the university team won their final in no small part because of their set-piece and the scrum coach and lineout coach are very happy because I take so much pride in that but when it comes to the backs its, go out and thrill, get out there and enjoy it.

One of the draws to playing at Hartpury university is the expert coaching available by both past and present players, including the likes of Wales back rower Bethan Lewis.

“Some of these girls don’t want to know about me they want to be coached by Sam Monahan and Mo Hunt our transitional coach who works closely with our 18- and 20-year-olds,” says Lynn.

“They’ve got to go to university because the women’s game is totally different to the men’s game, an academy player in the men’s can be earning good money but in the women’s they can’t, the girls have to go with a dual career.

“At the moment, the only fulltime girls are the ones being paid by unions, some may take a hit if they can financially afford it with their career and there’s no one better than Mo to work with those individuals to ensure they’re studying hard and working hard on their game.

“Our physical gym programmes follow the Gloucester-Hartpury’s programme, so all the girls know that if they’re at university they know what they’re getting and that’s the big difference.

“I hope BUCS start talking to us because perhaps they didn’t realise the influence we’d have on the Celtic Challenge in Wales as well because I think BUCS is the next best thing to PWR, watching the Hartpury University v Loughborough final the standard was outstanding, so physical.”