6th June 2011
Olympic Champions give Water-Polo master class at the National Aquatic Centre

A sell-out crowd of Irish, Hungarian and British supporters packed the National Aquatic Centre (NAC) to witness triple Olympic Water Polo champions Hungary take on the National squad from Great Britain in a head-to-head fixture.

Played in the main competition pool, the match was a spectacle for Polo and non-Polo fans alike including the Irish Minister for Sport Mr. Leo Varadkar TD as well as Mr. John Treacy, CEO of the Irish Sports Council and the Hungarian Ambassador Mr. Ferenc Jari.

At the half-time mark there were just a couple of goals between the teams, but the vastly experienced Hungarians proceeded to dominate for the rest of the match and beat the Britons on a score line of Hungary 16; GB 3.

The Hungarians went on to train and play a number of other exhibitions games before proceeding to the World Championships in Shanghai. Bobby Nolan, President of the Irish Water Polo Association commented “it was just a fantastic match, absolutely phenomenal! The standard of play seen here tonight has done so much for the sport of Water Polo in Ireland and the NAC proved to be one of the best facilities in the world to host a match of this calibre.”

This was the first visit by the Hungarian National team to Ireland. The hope is that they will return soon to make Dublin their training base in the lead-up to the London 2012 Games