Rugby: Exiles miss chance to move up in the table after losing to Battai 16:24

This wasn’t the outcome that the Budapest Exiles expected, but in the match against their neighbours in the table – Battai Bulldogs – they lost 16:24. The visitors stung the “Pink and Black” with two early tries in a game played behind closed doors at the Budapest Rugby Center in Kincsem Park. The Exiles sit third in the league, but now they have to make up a 6 point gap between them and second placed Battai if they want to make it to the league final that will be played at the end of May.

There were quite a few changes in the Exiles starting line-up as opposed to the team that convincingly came away with a win Fit World Gorillak Szeged in the last fixture of 2020. The changes, which included 50% of the forward pack were caused by key players staying away due to covid and a few departures, but no matter what it is no excuse for the team’s performance in the first 20 minutes, that allowed the Bulldogs to put two tries past the Exiles defense, with former Exile player Atilla Slot getting one conversion. By half time the score was 12:6 to Battai, with captain Joris Auger scoring from two penalties.

“Battai played a great game, keeping it simple and waiting for the right moments to strike out at us” said Antoni Bohdanowicz, Budapest Exiles manager.

“We can say that we didn’t have enough time to prepare, as due to internal safety regulations we missed a few training sessions due to covid-19 cases within the squad, but that wouldn’t do justice to the Bulldogs. They played really well, and took advantage of how we played. We can only review what went wrong and find a way to make amends ahead of the game against Esztergom” said Bohdanowicz.

The second half started in a similar manner to the first, with Battai yet again putting a try against the Exiles. Jeremy Hale, who was standing in as head coach for the game, in absence of Thomas Aponte, tinkered the squad a bit and introduced Hungarians Aron Erdelyi and Oliver Kopasz for front rower Jozef Rojik and second-row Andy Wright. Unfortunately the latter of the “Exile Magyarul” came off almost as quickly as he came on, picking up a yellow card for unprofessional disruption of play. Battai used that to their advantage and extended the lead by another converted try making it 24:6.