THE Scarlets have ruled themselves out of the race to sign George North – but the Wales wing is unlikely to head to Rodney Parade with the Dragons instead pressing on with other targets.

The Dragons announced that they were interested in snapping up the 25-year-old in November when it was revealed he was heading home from Northampton on a national dual contract.

Head coach Bernard Jackman said at the time: “We would definitely be interested in any top-class player like George who wants to come back to Wales.

“I would like to explain to him what we are doing here – we have definitely turned around our medical care and our strength and conditioning, we are getting some new recruits in and if he wants a challenge, we certainly have an exciting one for him here.”

The former Ireland hooker held talks with North but the region have had no feedback from the Lions star and are expecting a decision about his destination shortly, although they expect it to be one of their rivals to the west.

The dual deal will see the WRU picking up 60 per cent of the tab for North but that would still leave the Dragons having to pay a sizeable sum for a player that they wouldn’t see too often.

As such they have pressed on in their bid to strengthen more urgent needs rather than bolstering their well-stocked back three, even if it was with world-class North.

They have focussed primarily on adding a hard-hitting lock with an overseas recruit set to join Wales international Cory Hill, Rynard Landman and Joe Davies once the paperwork is complete.

Another fly-half is also on Jackman’s wishlist, although there isn’t much wiggle room in an increased but still small budget.

As for North, the saga continues to drag on with the Scarlets having the first option on the winger as his region of origin before he moved to Northampton.

However, the Guinness PRO14 champions are expected to confirm the signing of South African speedster Clayton Bloometjies from the Cheetahs with boss Wayne Pivac saying there won’t be any more additions to their back three.

“What I will say, we will announce a new signing very shortly. We have signed a back-three player and we will only be signing one,” said the head coach.

“We have not been informed of where George is going by anybody, I think everybody is still waiting. But you can only wait so long and we have signed a player in the back three.”

The Scarlets have also snapped up Dragons stalwart Phil Price on a permanent deal.

The loosehead headed west on loan in January in a bid to earn a full-time contract in Llanelli.

The 29-year-old has made six appearances for the PRO14 champions and penned a two-season deal.

Price is sixth on the Dragons’ list of appearance makers with 159 outings and only one prop, Adam Black on 163, played more times.