Lions coach Cash van Rooyen says he fully understands why his star flyhalf Elton Jantjies is heading to France to turn out for Pau, even though the timing is perhaps not ideal from a Lions perspective.

The move by Jantjies means the Lions are without a captain and recognised No 10 on the eve of the Rainbow Cup, which starts this weekend. The Lions are first up against the Bulls at Loftus.

“Losing Elton is a big blow, but we realise he wants to prepare for the tour by the British and Irish Lions,” said Van Rooyen.

The Lions will now consider centre Burger Odendaal, locks Willem Alberts and Reinhard Nothnagel as well as seasoned scrumhalf Ross Cronje as captaincy options.

“We have managed to build a senior core of players out of which we will name the captain, but the candidate will be someone who has worked closely with Elton over the last few months,” said Van Rooyen.

At flyhalf Tiaan Swanepoel and Fred Zeilinga are the first-choice candidates to wear the No 10 jersey against the high-flying Bulls.

“I believe we have sufficient cover to fill the gap left by Elton,” said Van Rooyen, “and apart from Tiaan and Fred we also have Jordan Hendrikse who is currently at the SA U20s.”

Van Rooyen said further that while members of the Springbok management team conducted an alignment camp with some of the Lions players last week he didn’t have much interaction with the Bok coaches.

“We know players like Elton and Wandisile Simelane will form part of the Bok planning, but we didn’t engage in their meetings, we had our own preparations to deal with,” he said.