BERNARD Jackman says the Dragons will keep being ambitious in the transfer market as they attempt to convince in-demand Wales and Lions ace Ross Moriarty to move to Rodney Parade.

The powerful back row forward’s Gloucester contract expires at the end of the season and he is mulling over a number of options.

He could pen a fresh deal with the Cherry and Whites or move to another Aviva Premiership team, with Exeter said to be interested, or take up an offer from a French club.

That would end the 23-year-old’s World Cup hopes with Wales now having a selection rule that means those that ply their trade overseas must have 60 caps.

The new policy aids the Welsh regions’ attempts to secure the services of Moriarty with the Guinness PRO14 champions Scarlets interested along with the Dragons.

Head coach Jackman has put a huge amount of groundwork in to talk through his Rodney Parade vision with the blindside/number eight and has been getting good noises from the player and his agent.

The former Ireland hooker denied reports that he was meeting with Moriarty yesterday and nothing is signed and sealed.

“Out of respect for all of the teams that want to sign Ross, he’ll probably meet everybody and listen to what they have to say,” said Jackman.

“Unfortunately there is no positive news yet and if we were able to sign him we would be singing about it.

“I didn’t meet him on Friday, I was actually up at Bryn Meadows giving a talk to Gwent teachers. It went very well and I saw that I supposed to apparently be up at Celtic Manor and had to check my diary…

“We’ve sold what we think this is about, as I am sure a lot of other clubs have.

“The fact that we are being linked with him is irrelevant until we have his signature. We would like to have him, we would love to have him but we haven’t got him.”

Jackman said earlier in the month that he wants to bring in 12 new faces for next season and is using the 60-cap rule to his advantage after already snapping up Wales scrum-half Rhodri Williams from Bristol.

“I’ve been targeting exiles, that’s not a secret, and when I speak to them their mindset has changed based on that rule. They want to come back and play in Wales to try and play international rugby.

“From my experience in Ireland, that works. Very few Irish players leave and international rugby has a really strong hold on players.

“It’s a really good rule that will potentially benefit us. If it doesn’t benefit us then it will benefit the Ospreys, Scarlets or Cardiff Blues.

“We want the regions being really strong and the best players playing for them so that the fans can come and see some of our homegrown internationals like Elliot Dee and Leon Brown at Rodney Parade.

“If we can attract a couple more from outside then that’s great. I’d like current internationals playing for the Dragons, helping us win and buying into what we do.”

And Jackman gives shorts shrift to the idea that his employers are giving the Dragons an unfair advantage over their regional rivals in the transfer market following their summer takeover at Rodney Parade.

“The WRU can help us be competitive, they already have given us great support in terms of medical, travel, strength and conditioning, coaching resources. They have been unbelievable,” said Jackman.

“But what I don’t agree with is that by helping the Dragons that deprives anyone else.

“We should have internal competition and if I was another region I’d be saying ‘great, let’s get better ourselves’ rather than crying about it.

“We want to be stronger, why is anyone worried about the Dragons being strong? We want to strong, let’s not be shy about that.

“Some people don’t want to hear that but we as a region want to be strong so obviously we are trying to get players.

“We have a limited amount of money and how we spend it is our own business. We want to keep our best players, which hasn’t happened in the past and other teams have profited from robbing players from the Dragons.

“We are now starting to keep them, some people don’t seem to be happy with that outside the region. We are starting to recruit people and some people don’t like that.

“Fine, my job is to make the Dragons strong and [chairman] David Buttress is unbelievably supportive in that in terms of the vision.

“We want to see a packed Rodney Parade and a team that can lock horns with anybody. That’s where we want to get to, there are going to be difficulties and people giving out about, probably but we can’t worry too much about them, we just have to make the Dragons better.”