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 (, '' wilåyat''). 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