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No end in sight to mass Lions exodus

Cape Town - The news that broke on Tuesday confirming Rohan Janse van Rensburg's move to Sale Sharks in England is the latest major blow to the Lions

READ: Overseas-based SA coaches give SA Rugby grey hairs

While overseas moves are common-place in South African rugby these days, the Lions have undoubtedly been hit harder than their Super Rugby counterparts. 

The Janse van Rensburg announcement means that the total number of players the Lions have lost this Super Rugby season alone has risen to FOUR.

And, in likelihood, that number will rise in the coming months. 

Highly-rated prop Ruan Dreyer and current captain Franco Mostert announced back in May that they would be joining former coach Johan Ackermann at Gloucester, with that news coming almost a month after flank Jaco Kriel confirmed that he was making the same move.  

Hooker Akker van der Merwe also made his way to the KwaZulu-Natal coast and now calls the Sharks home.

Faf de Klerk (Wasps) and Ruan Ackermann (Gloucester) left at the beginning of the season, and with Elton Jantjies and Andries Coetzee both heavily linked with moves to France, the title-challenging Lions squad of 2016 and 2017 has very few members left. 

Jantjies was asked about his future during the build-up to the third Test between the Springboks and England at Newlands last week, and he said then that discussions were still taking place and that nothing had been confirmed. 

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