{"id":807928,"date":"2026-10-19T21:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T21:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/807928\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T21:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T21:10:12","slug":"sos-recruit-exeter-cant-say-that-everythings-signed-sealed-and-delivered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/807928\/","title":{"rendered":"SOS recruit: Exeter &#8216;can&#8217;t say that everything&#8217;s signed, sealed, and delivered&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>  Published: 6 hours ago | 19 October 2026 10:55 EDT  <br \/> Updated: 6 hours ago | 19 October 2026 10:56 EDT  <\/p>\n<p>mens<\/p>\n<p>gallagher-premiership<\/p>\n<p>    Exeter Chiefs&#8217; English centre Will Butt (3rd-L) celebrates with teammates after scoring a try during the Pool 2 Round 1 European Champions Cup rugby union match between Stade Toulousian (Toulouse) (FRA) and Exeter Chiefs (ENG) at Stadium de Toulouse in Toulouse, south-western France on October 18, 2026. (Photo by Valentine CHAPUIS \/ AFP via Getty Images) <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"expand\" src=\"https:\/\/eu-cdn.rugbypass.com\/images\/common-svg\/select-arrow.svg\" height=\"6\" width=\"11\"\/>      <a href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rugbypass.com%2F\" onclick=\"GATracking.sendDataLayerEvent(&#039;preferredsourcegoogle&#039;);\" aria-label=\"Google Prefered Source\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792444212_589_google_preferred_source_badge_light.png\" alt=\"Google Prefered Source\" width=\"141\" height=\"44\" class=\"google-source\"\/> <\/a>     <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/exeter-chiefs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Exeter Chiefs<\/a> boss Rob Baxter has confirmed interest in signing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/pumas\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pumas<\/a> lock Andr\u00e9 Goedhals to strengthen his injury-hit second row, but says the deal is far from done.<\/p>\n<p>Baxter says he has been looking to bring someone into his Sandy Park outfit since learning in the summer that Italian star Andrea Zambonin faced a lengthy spell on the sidelines after a shoulder operation.<\/p>\n<p>He has also spoken with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/currie-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Currie Cup<\/a> franchise about a move for Goedhals, who holds a British passport after being born in Devon while his parents lived and worked in England, making him English-qualified.<br \/>Goedhals, 21, settled in Riversdale, a farming community in the Western Cape, where he finished his schooling at the renowned Oakdale Agricultural High School.<\/p>\n<p>He was highly rated as a schoolboy and won Springbok under-20 honours but moved to the Pumas after fading and failing to live up to his early promise in the highly competitive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/stormers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Stormers<\/a> setup.<\/p>\n<p>But he has caught the eye for the Pumas in the Currie Cup this season and was part of the side that lost the final 23-16 to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/griquas\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Griquas<\/a> in Kimberley last month, and Baxter says the ball is now in the Mbombela-based side\u2019s court.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I\u2019m honest with you. All I can say is we\u2019ve been actively looking for a lock replacement, obviously, for Andre Zambonin since we knew he\u2019d miss a significant part of the season, and we may be close to getting that done with Andrew.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I can\u2019t say that everything\u2019s signed, sealed, and delivered because that would be disrespectful to the Pumas because they\u2019re still making some decisions, and the ball is still in their court, and we\u2019re waiting on them to okay things.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd that\u2019s why it\u2019s, actually, a little annoying because it seems a little disrespectful to the Pumas. This isn\u2019t trying to push things through and make things happen any quicker. We\u2019re waiting for the proper process to happen in South Africa,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published: 6 hours ago | 19 October 2026 10:55 EDT Updated: 6 hours ago | 19 October 2026&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-807928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}