Thursday 1st October 09

France international Olivier Elima says an ear-bashing from club president Bernard Guasch helped turn around the fortunes of Catalans Dragons, who are just 80 minutes away from a maiden engage Super League Grand Final.

The Dragons, who take on defending champions Leeds Rhinos at Headingley tomorrow for a place at Old Trafford, are on a roll after winning on consecutive weekends at St Helens, Wakefield Trinity Wildcats and Huddersfield Giants.

Elima traces the dramatic transformation in form to his side’s surprise home defeat by Wakefield a month ago which appeared to end their hopes of finishing in the top eight.

“That game probably changed everything,” he said. “There were a few upsets in the board and the president let us know about it in the changing room afterwards.

“He used some harsh words when he spoke to the team. We looked each other in the eye. We weren’t happy with him and he wasn’t happy with us.”

The Dragons players responded to Guasch’s stinging criticism a week later by winning at St Helens to secure their play-off spot and, after gathering momentum in sudden-death victories over Wakefield and Huddersfield, Elima says there is belief in the camp that they can go all the way.

“We went to St Helens just to prove a point, not to the board or the supporters, but to ourselves, that we had a good squad,” he said.

“We played for each other and it worked out pretty good. We kept on going, we had the motivation and, now we’re only 80 minutes from the final, anything can happen.

“We don’t want to be watching Leeds playing St Helens or Wigan in the final. We want to be there. We’re not finished yet.”

Catalans were selected as the Rhinos’ opponents as part of the League’s new ‘clubcall’ system, with Wigan Warriors sent to St Helens in Saturday’s second semi-final, but Elima says the decision will not add to their motivation.

“We’re not really surprised,” he said. “We thought if Hull KR had won, they would probably pick them because they won against them the other week.

“But when they lost we thought they would pick us because we’ve never won over there and Leeds won pretty easily at Headingley and in Edinburgh this year.

“I don’t really think it will add to the motivation. At the end of the day, they had to pick one team.

“We can motivate ourselves as we have done for the last three weeks, we don’t need this choice to add to that.”

The Dragons have conceded 190 points in their four previous visits to Headingley but Leeds captain Kevin Sinfield has vivid memories of his side’s last-minute 32-30 defeat in Perpignan in June and admits the Frenchmen are arguably the form team of the competition.

“I don’t think you can rely on history,” he said. “Effectively it’s a cup competition now and we’ve all seen what can happen in cup competitions, anybody can win on the day,

“In a semi-final, you can’t expect anything but a really tough game. The last time we played them, they beat us and played really well.

“We understand they’ve got some real quality in there and in the last month they’ve really impressed me. Certainly their defensive effort against Huddersfield was outstanding.

“It’s going to be a special team that can break through and beat them when they’re on such a roll and in such good form.”

Leeds are considering recalling prop forward Luke Burgess, who missed their opening play-off win over Hull Kingston Rovers with a foot injury, while Catalans coach Kevin Walters is mulling over the availability of second rower Jamal Fakir, who has been out for seven weeks with a leg injury.