Sale Sharks leaver Hyron Andrews to return to South Africa

Sale Sharks lock Hyron Andrews is returning to South Africa to join the Lions after the United Rugby Championship outfit qualified for the Champions Cup next season.

The Gallagher Prem side announced a month ago that Andrews would be one of 20 players who would be leaving the club when their contracts run out at the end of the month in a massive clear-out of their bloated squad.

Andrews, 30, spent eight years with the Durban-based Sharks before moving to Greater Manchester two years ago, where he made 45 appearances, including 19 in all competitions, in the season that has just ended.

Lions boss Ivan van Rooyen needs to strengthen his side ahead of next season, and Andrews, who represented the South African Schools team and Junior Boks, is a player that he has been keeping tabs on for several weeks and has persuaded him to put pen to paper.

Andrews, who hails from Paarl in the Western Cape, is a specialist number five who will replace Raynard Roets. Roets has revealed that he is leaving for the Pro D2 side Biarritz on a two-year deal once his Lions deal runs out on July 1st.

The Lions finished seventh in the URC this season, winning 10 of their 18 games, an improvement of four places and have so far only confirmed the arrival in Johannesburg of Springbok loosehead Boan Venter from URC rivals Edinburgh.

Van Rooyen is also losing fly-half Gianni Lombard to the Sharks, while former Sharks, Gloucester and Urayasu D-Rocks hooker Franco Marais is retiring, and Zimbabwean full-back Tapiwa Mafura, who only played once this season, is also on his way out.

The Lions are also likely to bring in at least one more player in addition to Andrews and Venter, with a tighthead most probably on their shopping list after Bok Asenathi Ntlabakanye was suspended for 18 months.