Chris Budgen is a retired rugby player. He played for
Bridgend RFC
Bridgend Ravens ( cy, Cigfrain Pen-y-bont) (formerly Bridgend RFC) are a semi-professional rugby union club based in Bridgend, South Wales.
They currently play in the Welsh Premier Division and are a feeder club to the Ospreys regional team ...
from 1999-2001 then played the majority of his professional career for
Exeter Chiefs
Exeter Chiefs (officially Exeter Rugby Club) is an England, English professional rugby union club based in Exeter, Devon. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby.
The club was founded in 1871 and since 2006 has played i ...
and
Northampton Saints
Northampton Saints (officially Northampton Rugby Football Club) is a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby.
They were formed in 1880 as "Northampton St. James", ...
in the
Aviva Premiership
Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...
.
He made his debut for
Exeter
Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol.
In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...
on 30 September 2008 against
Esher
Esher ( ) is a town in Surrey, England, to the east of the River Mole.
Esher is an outlying suburb of London near the London-Surrey Border, and with Esher Commons at its southern end, the town marks one limit of the Greater London Built-Up Ar ...
. His position of choice is Prop. Budgen's try against Worcester for Exeter on 3 Nov 2012 made Budgen the oldest try scorer in the Aviva Premiership at 39 years and 287 days., Budgen dedicated this score to his twin sons who died prematurely two weeks before the game.
Budgen remains a very popular and respected figure among fans of both Exeter and Northampton, with Exeter fans nicknaming him "Budgie" and Saints fans nicknaming him "Chicken". Budgen juggled most of his professional career with that of an active soldier; Budgen is stationed on
Salisbury Plain
Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in the south western part of central southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies wi ...
and has also seen action in
Helmand Province
Helmand (Pashto/Dari: ; ), also known as Hillmand, in ancient times, as Hermand and Hethumand, is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan
Afghanistan is divided into 34 provinces (, '' wilÄyat''). The provinces of Afghanistan are the primar ...
.
It was announced on 24 May 2013 that Budgen would be going into coaching with the Marlborough RFC colts team.
References
External links
Premiership Player Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Budgen, Chris
New Zealand rugby union players
1973 births
Living people
Exeter Chiefs players
Rugby union players from Hamilton, New Zealand
Rugby union props