Cape Town - The Lions have put contract negotiations with Springbok flyhalf Elton Jantjies on hold, a report indicates.
According to Rapport, this was after Jantjies was involved in an early morning incident in a Durban hotel three weeks ago.
Following the Lions' 27-17 defeat to the Sharks at Kings Park on May 25, Jantjies is believed to have left their hotel for an unauthorised night out.
According to the report in the Afrikaans newspaper, Jantjies only returned back to the hotel between 04:00 and 04:30 the Sunday morning, and upon his return bumped into Lions CEO Rudolf Straeuli in the foyer.
In response to the incident - and rumours that Jantjies had disregarded captain Kwagga Smith's calls on the field - the Lions retracted their new contract offer to Jantjies.
In the following weeks, Jantjies was dropped and then benched for games against the Stormers and Hurricanes, with the Lions citing a breach of team protocol as reason for his omission.
Straeuli declined to confirm or deny the incident and refused to comment on contract negotiations between the Lions and Jantjies.
