Despite a stony wall of silence from Cape Town, French club  Lyon has officially claimed discarded Springbok Ricky Januarie as one of their own.

Without giving a date for his arrival, the club said on its website that the 29-year-old has "pledged his services to the club for the next two seasons".

Stormers coach Allister Coetzee has been reluctant to speak about any transfer activity and recently told rugby365.com that he was unaware of any contract negotiations involving Januarie.

"We don't allow any interference from outside to distract the team and we focused on the job at hand," Coetzee explained when questioned about the scrumhalf.

Confirmation of Januarie's departure from the Cape franchise comes after he was axed from the Bok planning squad, which gathered in Durban on Sunday and Monday.

Januarie was in the initial 51-man Bok squad that gathered in Cape Town last month, but when the squad was reduced to 37, recently, his name was missing.

It means Januarie's World Cup prospects are scant - with scrumhalves Fourie du Preez, Ruan Pienaar and Francois Hougaard all ahead of him in the national pecking order.

The 29-year-old, who got a taste of European club rugby with the Ospreys at the end of 2009, is the club's eleventh signing of the off-season as they build a team capable of competing in France's top flight.

Others who have signed with Lyon include Mark van Gisbergen (from Wasps), Laurent Tranier (Biarritz), Juan Manuel Leguizamon (Stade Français), Arnaud Marchois (Stade Français), Jean-Philippe Bonrepeaux (Brive), Régis Lespinas (Brive), Sisa Koyamaibole (Sale), Anthony Roux (Colomiers), Alipaté Fatafehi (Saint-Etienne), Arnauld Tchougong (Bourgoin) and Connie Basson (Bourgoin).