JOHANNESBURG -  On Thursday Saru’s general council followed through with a proposal first tabled by the executive council in January that the South African franchise to finish last in  the country’s conference in this year’s Super Rugby season would be relegated.

“As stated before, the decision taken at the South African Rugby Union (Saru) general council meeting on Thursday to eliminate the Lions from Super Rugby in 2013 is very disappointing,” a Lions statement said yesterday.

“Media speculation of an immediate exodus of players have created further uncertainty among supporters and stakeholders and Lions management therefore deem it prudent to confirm that the larger group of senior players are contracted at least until  October 31, 2013.”

The list of contracted players include current captain JC Janse van Rensburg, last year’s Currie Cup-winning skipper Josh Strauss, Elton Jantjies, CJ van der Linde, Pat Cilliers, Franco van der Merwe and Derick Minnie among others. Jantjies, however,  may elect to play at a different franchise in next year’s Super Rugby competition.

After the  announcement  by Saru that the Lions will fall out of the 2013 Super Rugby edition for the Southern Kings, former Springbok and Lions star Hannes Strydom said that the move was “a very bad decision”.

Saru confirmed after the announcement that the Lions would be able to play a promotion-relegation game next year at the completion of the 2013 Super Rugby competition, against the lowest-placed South African team, to challenge them for a spot in 2014.

But Strydom, a 1995 World Cup winner,  was unimpressed, saying that the Kings would not do a better job than  the Lions had done last season.

“It is not the right decision,” said Strydom. “They do not deserve to be in that kind of competition.

“The Lions deserve another chance to play in Super Rugby.

“Of course, they had their challenges including the suspension of their coach, but it was not the players’ fault and therefore they deserve to remain in the competition.”

Although the Lions finished bottom of the South African Conference, the decision for them not to be included  next year  has sparked a lot of reaction  from both fans and players, with many saying it was an unfair decision. Former Springbok wing Pieter Hendricks, also a member of the 1995 World Cup squad, believes that  political pressure was the cause of the verdict.

“There was too much political involvement in that decision,” said Hendricks. “But this will be the time for the Lions to regroup and find their ground. A lot    has happened in the past few years.

They have lost a lot of good players, and instead of buying, they sold a lot.

“The decision will affect them psychologically but it was internal politics that that determined this outcome.

“The Kings will have to prove their worth in the competition.

They were promised a few years ago that they will be included, and now it’s their chance to prove that it was not a mistake for them to be part of the competition,” said Hendricks.

Saru also announced that South African teams would be involved in promotion-relegation play-offs in the 2014 and 2015 seasons, before the structure of the competition is reviewed for 2016.