SCRUM-HALF Jonathan Evans aims to sign off with a win on Saturday in his final game for Newport Gwent Dragons and he says the future is bright for the region, writes Andrew Penman.

The 22-year-old is heading to the Aviva Premiership with Bath after five years with the Dragons and he wants to end on a high at Munster.

Cardiff-born Evans became the youngest player to represent the Rodney Parade region when he made his first appearance, aged 17, against the Ospreys in May 2010.

But, after 82 appearances and 11 tries and seven this season, he’s opted to move on.

“I want to end the season on a high because it’s my last game and I’d like to go off on a good note,” he said ahead of Saturday’s trip to Cork.

“Personally it’s been a really good season. I was a bit stop-start before Christmas but after that I managed to keep my starting jersey up until the last game.

“We’ve had some great wins in that time and it would just be nice to finish on a high.

“Me and Richie Rees are leaving and Ian Gough and Lee Byrne are retiring but there aren’t too many going, which is a bit unusual.”

Assessing his five years with the region, Evans said: “It’s been up and down time for me. The seasons I’ve not been injured have been amazing.

“The seasons I’ve been injured I’ve just been sat in the physio room all year, which has been really unfortunate.

“But the actual number of games I’ve got in I’m pretty happy with and I managed to get my 50th appearance this year, which I was really pleased with.”

Evans says last week’s victory over Edinburgh in the Guinness Pro12 didn’t really make up for last month’s European Challenge Cup semi-final defeat at Murrayfield but he insists the Dragons youngsters will learn from that and improve.

“I would have liked to have made the final, especially after watching it because Edinburgh didn’t particularly play that well and were still pretty close to Gloucester,” he said.

“But we all learned from the semi. There are a lot of young players here. I think Jason Tovey was the oldest one in the back line on Friday so we’re all still learning.”