FLY-HALF Dorian Jones says the Newport Gwent Dragons will stick with their positive approach and keep aiming high despite last week’s Murrayfield mauling.

The talented young squad won 12 out of their last 17 fixtures before the crushing 45-16 defeat to Edinburgh in the European Rugby Challenge Cup semi-final.

That run included home and away wins over the Blues and Leinster, victory in Newcastle and at home to Ulster.

And, ahead of tomorrow’s Judgement Day derby clash with the Scarlets at the Millennium Stadium, Jones insists the Dragons won’t let one bad day derail their progress.

“I can’t see us being as bad as we were last week,” said the 22-year-old son of head coach Kingsley Jones.

“It’s a pity we slipped up in such a big game and we can’t let that happen again.

“Everyone was disappointed but we’ve got to put that behind us because we can’t change that now.

“This is the next biggest game after the semi-final, a huge occasion in front of 50,000 people. It’s a great way to put that loss behind us.”

Abergavenny-born Jones says the Rodney Parade region won’t let the dispiriting nature of last week’s defeat change their approach or their ambitions.

“We try to get the ball out to Hallam and Tyler and we’ve got to keep playing positively because they have so much talent that they need the ball in their hands,” he said.

“But it has to be in the right areas of the field. We tried to force it last week because of the scoreboard and that leads to errors.

“We have focused on our game quite a lot on the last five weeks; just trying to get what we do right and if we do that we believe we can beat teams,” he added.

“We’re at the stage now where we’re looking up the table, not below.

“We don’t want to be the bottom [Welsh] region; that was what we were always looking at. Now we want to be the second region.

“Instead of looking behind we want to look forward and, who knows?

“We’re the outside runners for that sixth place but who’s to say we can’t finish there?

“If we can beat Leinster home and away, Ulster at home we can beat anyone on our day.

“So if the next three games go our way and we play well anything is possible.

“And we definitely want to finish in the top six next year; it’s a big target for us.

“The more we play together I can only see us getting better, especially with the age of the boys.

“The only way we’ll be going is up at the moment.”