DORIAN Jones has pledged Newport Gwent Dragons won't go into their shells when attempting to take command of their European Rugby Challenge Cup group in Castres on Saturday.

The Dragons head to southern France in fine fettle following Sunday's excellent 30-12 bonus point victory against Sale at Rodney Parade.

That has boosted morale for a side looking for an away Top 14 scalp for the second successive season following their stunning victory at Stade Francais in October 2014.

They played free flowing rugby to stun the Parisians at the Stade Jean Bouin and their fly-half says they will use the same blueprint against the 2013 French champions at Stade Pierre Antoine.

"We wanted to go out and play positively against Sale and four tries reflected that," said Jones.

"We were playing into a strong wind (in the first half) we knew that we had to keep the ball alive and look after it so we played a lot of running rugby.

"You have got to win your home games in this group, then a big performance in Castres and anything can happen.

"We don't know what side they will put out but we are just looking after ourselves and building on our own performances.

"We started the season slowly and want to kick on now. We need to make improvements from Sale in Castres.

"You can't go out there and play negatively. You have to go to play positive rugby and score tries, we did that against Sale and will do it again in Castres."

Jones did not play in the Paris victory – "Angus O'Brien was the star man, the pressure's on!" – but helped the Dragons secure pool top spot by pulling the strings in the home tie with Stade and in the thrilling win in Newcastle.

The 23-year-old wore 10 on his back in the quarter-final success against Cardiff Blues in Newport and also the hugely disappointing last-four exit at Murrayfield when thrashed 45-16.

"Teams didn't expect much from us last year and we surprised a lot of people," he said.

"We sadly fell short in Edinburgh but this year we just have to keep building and anything can happen, we've got to take it a game at a time and maybe we can be in the final this time.

"It was a really sad night in Edinburgh because we knew we could perform and didn't. Hopefully this year we keep performing and don't let ourselves down."