In recent days there has been some speculation that Francois Steyn could be moving back to South Africa, and of course the speculation started who could vie for his services.

One of the candidates touted to have offered Steyn employment, of course, is the Golden Lions Rugby Union, but apparently that is not the case… yet.

There’s currently no offer on the table from the Golden Lions, according to Steyn’s agent, Gerrie Swart.

He said “We are busy negotiating with Racing Metro. Frans will always consider playing in South Africa. He wants to play for the Springboks. But there is nothing concrete”.

The Golden Lions fought hard for Steyn’s services earlier this year when the union’s former business partner, the Guma Group was keen to lure the Springbok to the union, the split between the Golden Lions and Gumede’s Guma Group put paid to such hopes at the time.

Lions’ provisional CEO, Ruben Moggee also confirmed that they haven’t made any offer for Steyn.

What probably started speculation in the first place is the fact that Lions coach, John Mitchell, admitted they would enjoy having a player of the calibre of Steyn on their books.

The Lions have since forged a new business partnership with businessman Altmann Allers, who owns Gassfit, but it looks unlikely that they will spend big in the near future.

It is also known that the Golden Lions are downscaling on player contracts, with about 20 players’ contracts not renewed at the end of the 2011 season and the GLRU is apparently in talks with the South African Rugby Players’ Association to get more players’ contracts moved over to other unions. This reduction does not include the top Lions players, but rather fringe players who hardly featured for the first team.

The Lions are apparently aiming to keep up to three contracted players in each position, which gives them a target of between 45 and 50 players.