International call number 10 for Saints as Wales select winger North

North becomes the 10th Northampton player to have been called up for international duty ahead of the November Tests.

Alex Corbisiero, Dylan Hartley, Courtney Lawes, Tom Wood, Lee Dickson, Luther Burrell and Ben Foden have been selected for England, while George Pisi and Kahn Fotuali’i are set to represent Samoa.

North and Wales face South Africa on November 9 before taking on Argentina, Tonga and Australia on successive weekends.

The clash with the Wallabies falls outside of the international window, but Saints are likely to let North play instead of hauling him back for their Aviva Premiership trip to Worcester on November 30.

When asked about the issue earlier in the season, the player said: “It’s between me and the coaches, we’ve got to talk about the games.

“Saints have been really good in talking to the WRU, not just the conditioning staff but the coaches as well.

“They’ve got an open door policy here so the coaches and conditioning staff can come down and that’s really important to me because playing for your country is the highest honour you can have.

“Obviously there will be some times when they (Saints) will say we need you for this game a week later but the option is there to go as well.

And when as pressed on whether he would be able to play in the Australia game, North replied: “I think so, yeah. I’m available for all of them.”

That means North could miss as many as five weeks for the club he joined from Scarlets during the summer.

North could be unavailable for the Premiership trip to London Irish on November 2 and will then definitely miss the LV= Cup clashes with Gloucester and Irish as well as the Premiership home game against Newcastle Falcons.