Ross Moriarty: Dragons chairman David Buttress explains signing

Ross Moriarty helped England Under-20s to win the 2013 World Junior Championship

Chairman David Buttress says Dragons signed Wales back-rower Ross Moriarty on a purely regional deal because a national dual contract (NDC) might have made him likelier to join a rival.

Moriarty, 23, will join Dragons from Gloucester at the end of the season.

He rejected an NDC - 60% paid by the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) and 40% by the region - to accept an offer from the Dragons, majority owned by the WRU.

"Time wasn't on our side," said Buttress.

"Bernard [Jackman, Dragons' head coach] identified Ross as our top target and we didn't have time to go down the NDC route. That may have taken until January and there wasn't a guarantee we would have got him.

"We couldn't take the risk of waiting because we may have missed out on him. We had to act and get Ross in the bag, which I'm delighted happened.

"Our playing budget last year was £3.5m - it hasn't changed. Next year it's going up slightly, driven by two constituent parts. One is the additional broadcast revenue we have from the South Africans joining the Pro14 and the other is from some other commercial deals which has enabled us to invest a bit more than £500,000 more in the playing side going into next season.

"So it's come from our playing salary budget, same as it would any other region. It's as simple and clear as that.

"If you look at the other regions, we're a long way behind on the playing salary budget so am I satisfied with where we currently are? Absolutely not. We need to do a lot of hard work off the pitch because we have to generate the money.

"There's no magic money tree. This is driven from hard work and execution by the commercial team here at Rodney Parade.

"We will have to generate every pound for the additional playing salary budget from investments, sponsorship or commercial revenue, which we will then invest straight into the playing budget to become more competitive."

How the deal was financed

Signing Moriarty is a major coup for Dragons, who have often been the weakest of the four Welsh regions since the inception of regional rugby in 2003.

However, despite the impressive nature of the acquisition, some had raised questions about the financial structure of the deal.

As the Dragons' majority shareholder is the WRU, there was some confusion as to how the region appeared to be outbidding the WRU's offer of an NDC with a proposition of its own.

Buttress, a businessman whose achievements include co-founding the internet takeaway company Just Eat UK, owns a share of the Dragons having invested what he calls a "low six-figure" sum in the region.

He insisted the deal was "not complicated" and sought to explain how it worked in accordance with the Dragons' ownership model.

"Let me make it crystal clear, if a company is owned with shareholders, in our case majority owned by the WRU, we have an obligation to those shareholders," said Buttress.

"That said, the club is run by the board of directors - two of which are from the WRU (Steve Phillips and Ian Jeffery) and two of which are independent (Buttress and David Reynolds) - then all our squad decisions are made by Bernard Jackman.

David Buttress is the former chief executive and co-founder of Just Eat UK

"That's no different to the last 20 years of my business life where as a public company I had many, many shareholders that owned Just Eat. They didn't run Just Eat, myself and the management team did.

"I see a lot of misinformed comment around ownership, which does not mean operational management.

"It's very different and I would add that that's a very positive thing for Welsh rugby because the last thing the WRU should be doing is running any region. It's good for them to have a stake, and I can see the benefit here of the WRU.

"Let's be blunt, without them this region would not exist. Congratulations to them for allowing the region to have a second chance, but in terms of how the region is managed and operated, it's the board's job to operate the company on a day to day basis.

"In that sense it's the same as any other organisation regionally, it's just that our [major] shareholder happens to be the WRU.

"People talk about transparency, I think if anything the Dragons is currently the most transparent region in Wales given the level of scrutiny.

"We are trying to engage with stakeholders, whether it social media or other ways. We will continue to do that because there is nothing to hide here, we are saying exactly what we are doing."

"Catching up" with other regions

Moriarty, who has 17 caps, was keen to return to Wales next season following a change in the WRU's selection policy that means players taking up new contracts with clubs outside of Wales must have won 60 caps to be eligible to play for their country.

The back-rower was exempt for this season because of his existing contract with Gloucester, but would have become ineligible to play for Warren Gatland's side if he signed a new deal with the Cherry and Whites - or any other club outside Wales.

George North has also decided to return to Wales on a dual contract, although it is not yet known which of the four Welsh regions the British and Irish Lion will join.

Jackman has confirmed the Dragons' interest in North and Buttress hopes Moriarty's arrival will attract more high-profile signings and boost the region commercially as well.

"It attracts other talented players and by doing that it creates a network effect of success. Talented people want to be with talented people," Buttress added.

"If we can bring in talented players that drives more success, which drives more sponsorship, which drives more commercial engagement, which drives more supporters, which drives more hospitality.

"Is it exciting Ross is coming? Yeah, of course. But I look at it from a perspective of it's done, let's move on. We need to keep going.

"There's no secret about it, we're behind. The Dragons' intention is not to stay behind and we need to do a lot of hard work to catch up with the other regions."