Saints’ wing North unlikely to return to Wales soon

Wales winger George North is unlikely to return to one of the Welsh regions at the end of his current Northampton Saints contract according to his coach.

The twenty-three-year-old British and Irish Lions winger comes off contract with English club Northampton Saints at the end of the current season.

There has been speculation that North could return to one of the Welsh Regions through a national dual contract but Saints coach Jim Mallinder says that there have been no no formal offers from either the Welsh Rugby Union or the regions.

Mallinder says that he is “very, very confident” that the 55-cap star will sign an extension with the English Premiership Rugby club.

North made the move to Northampton Saints from the Scarlets in 2013 and was one of the real stars on the British and Irish Lions tour to Australia in that year.

Welsh clubs are battling to match the spending power of the French and English clubs but the new national contracts which are 60% funded by the Welsh Rugby Union are helping to bring stars like Jonathan Davies back to the Scarlets from Clermont.

However Wales Rugby union chairman Gareth Davies says that offering big money to get their Test players back in Wales might not be the answer.

“I think we’ve got to be fair to the other players as well,” Davies told the BBC.

“We don’t want too much of an imbalance in what we pay players,” he said, adding there is a “finite pot of money” available to sign players on national dual contracts.