WELSH WINGER GEORGE North will leave the Scarlets at the end of the season to join Aviva Premiership giants Northampton Saints.

After much speculation, the Scarlets confirmed today that they will release the 20-year-old star from his contract a year early to facilitate the move.

North has agreed a three-year deal with Northampton which will see him remain a Saint until after the Rugby World Cup in 2015.

“We made George the very best offer we could,” Scarlets chief executive Mark Davies said.

However, we have to fully understand and appreciate that George’s quite unique value in the rugby marketplace, possibly inside Wales, but certainly outside Wales, is considerably greater than the Scarlets as an independent business can reach.

Northampton first moved in January for North, who made his Scarlets debut in as a teenager in 2010, and quickly opened negotiations with the club and the player’s representative Christan Abt.

“Once we’d been informed by the Scarlets that a club outside the UK had made a significant approach, which the Scarlets had to consider, we focused on ways to keep George at the Scarlets, or within Wales,” Abt said.

“Given our initial intention to complete the existing contract, the Scarlets made the best offer they could for an extended agreement, but unfortunately, having taken into account every aspect involved in such an important decision, we were unable to agree terms.

At the same time it became very apparent that due to a number of factors beyond our control and with no clear directive on the horizon, keeping George in Wales would prove increasingly difficult over time.

Following the recent weeks of much publicised debate, we are delighted to have reached an agreement with Northampton Saints who have made every effort to make what was a very difficult and emotional decision into a very sensible one, and George can now look forward and work hard throughout the remainder of his season with the Scarlets before his move to Northampton in the summer.

Allan Robson, chief executive of Northampton, described the club’s new signing as “an exceptional talent and one of the most formidable back-three attacking players in world rugby.”