Pedersen relishing a reunion with Crump
South African forward tipped to be better than ever after returning from his injury
Gladiators by riding with Peterborough in the Premiership, while he will also represent his hometown club of Esbjerg in Denmark’s top division.
“I am excited to be back in Britain – not only at Plymouth, but also at Peterborough. To be fair, I have always said I wouldn’t rule out a return to the UK. But over the years I have been racing in Britain, we have always agreed the contract in November or at the latest December.
“When I was sitting there in February without a team, I didn’t think it would happen because I thought all the teams were full. But then I got a call from Matt Ford at Poole and he said there were still a few places over there. Luckily enough my average fitted in at both Peterborough and Plymouth.
“The most important thing was getting a place in both leagues. I knew that would fit me perfectly because there’s a lot of setup involved in moving over there to just do one league. When I knew there was a chance at both Plymouth and Peterborough, we were keen to jump on it.
“So far, I haven’t got a Polish contract. This is also why it was quite good to get some more meetings in Britain. For the moment, I only have Denmark and Britain, and it fits in quite well for me.”
ROB Baxter is expecting powerful South African forward Jacques Vermeulen to come back better and stronger than ever.
Vermeulen has not featured in 2020/21 having had surgery on his shoulder back in October, but having been an injury reserve at the weekend for Exeter Chiefs’ 12-13 defeat to Northampton Saints, the backrow/ lock could make his first appearance on Friday night away at Sale Sharks.
Vermeulen had an outstanding first season with the Chiefs having joined the club from Super Rugby side The Sharks, featuring 26 times in all competitions, scoring nine tries in the process as Exeter were crowned European and Premiership champions.
Discussing the injury situation heading to the AJ Bell Stadium,
Chiefs director of rugby Baxter said: “We are looking pretty good, we didn’t pick up anything significant at the weekend.
“Obviously as you are aware, guys like Jacques Vermeulen was ‘a traveller’ on Saturday and warmed up with the team and is in full training.
“Jack Nowell has been in full training, Ben Moon is in full training so those guys are potentially available and the internationals are not available so it is give with one hand, take away with the other but that is what everyone is going through at the moment.”
England winger Nowell has yet to feature this season having also had surgery in October on the ligament in his toe, while international prop Moon has recovered from an operation on his neck. .
Discussing Vermeulen’s return, Baxter said: “It is going to be interesting to see how Jacques goes when we introduce him back in because obviously he hasn’t played since the finals.
“He has had a long period of rehab.
“There are going to be elements of him which are going to be an improvement on what you have seen before because he has had a genuine, top quality, long length pre-season with some physical development which will be great for him.
“He has probably never had that amount of time in the gym, working purely on his physical development.
“It is going to be interesting to see whether the training time he has had has been enough to shake the rust off or whether he is going to need some game time to do that.
“He looks fit, he looks massively enthusiastic and ready to go and I am really looking forward to him contributing again this season like he did last year because without doubt he had a huge season last season.”
Meanwhile Wales international winger Alex Cuthbert looks set to miss this weekend’s game having felt some tightness is his back and hamstring.
Baxter provided an update, saying: “He is coming on, he is not going [to be out] too long. We obviously took the precaution to take him off when he felt that twinge [against London Irish] and we haven’t tried to get him back out there too quickly.
“He shouldn’t be too long, we should be seeing him back in the next couple of weeks.”
All Gallagher Premiership sides will be without their Six Nations internationals this week meaning England trio Luke Cowan-Dickie, Jonny Hill and Henry Slade; Scotland pair Stuart Hogg and Jonny Gray, and Wales’ Tomas Francis will be unavailable for selection for Chiefs.