NEWPORT Gwent Dragons director of rugby Lyn Jones insists his team "haven't become a bad side overnight" and believes the "big culture change" of blooding youth at the region will pay dividends despite two heavy defeats in the space of eight days.

The Gwent region were well beaten 29-10 by the Scarlets in Saturday's Judgement Day derby at the Millennium Stadium in front of a Guinness PRO12 record-breaking crowd of 52,762 fans.

That setback came just a week after an even bigger 45-16 hammering at the hands of Edinburgh in the semi-final of the Rugby Challenge Cup at Murrayfield.

Jones admitted the Dragons have plenty of work to do as they aim to end the season on a high with a home league encounter with Edinburgh to come on Friday, May 8 before travelling to Cork to take on Munster on Saturday, May 16.

But the former Wales flanker explained their battering at the hands of the Scarlets could largely be blamed on a crippling injury list which forced them to play so many young players against the West Walians who contained seasoned internationals, backs of the calibre of Liam Williams, Scott Williams and Rhys Priestland whose experience and class helped guide them to a bonus point victory and take the game away from the Dragons after they led 10-3 just before half-time.

"We've been a good side since December 1, but we haven't played well over the last eight days and we still have a lot of work to do between now and the end of the season," Jones said.

"But we haven't become a bad team overnight and losing to the Scarlets was not full of negatives. Half of our squad this weekend were with Wales Under-20s in New Zealand last year (at the IRB Junior World Championships). There's a big culture change going on at the Dragons."

Jones went on to point out the Dragons were missing highly experienced players like back row forwards Lewis Evans and Nic Cudd, lock Andrew Coombs, prop Boris Stankovich and a trio of centres in Ashley Smith, Pat Leach and Ross Wardle.

Looking to the future, he said on Saturday: "We had to put too many kids out there against the Scarlets but (lock) Matthew Screech is going to become a good regional player, (back rower) James Thomas was good today, (flanker) James Benjamin is going to have a bright future and (centre) Tyler Morgan showed glimpses of what he can do. (Hooker) Elliot Dee is also an excellent player."