We have lift-off - Spacemen ride all the way with meteoric Fijians

Lining the airport terminal were the entire committee, coaches and officials of the Parkes Spacemen footy club, anxiously checking their watches, shuffling their feet and hoping desperately their plan to save the battling club was going to work.

"It was a pretty big step for us," explained club president Graham Cole. "Parkes had never really done anything like that before. We were a bit nervous, wondering how it would turn out."

The club had been struggling for players, and committee member Paul Clyburn had found a Fijian rugby league website spruiking players for a home in NSW to prepare for the World Cup. The Spacemen, after much negotiation with rugby league authorities in both countries, not to mention the Department of Immigration, put their hands up for four.

"We had a big welcoming committee out there, all thinking, 'Geez, I hope these blokes are on the plane'," Cole said.

Come they did - big, strong men, each with a tiny bag containing their football boots and not much else. "It was April and it was still warm here and they were freezing, absolutely freezing," Cole said. "They got off the plane and they were four of the loveliest blokes you could ever meet, which makes it easy. They just fitted in straight away with our local players. From the wooden spoon the year before, we ended up making the finals, won our first semi and got beaten in extra time in the second week."

Three of the Fijians - Ilsoni Vonomateiratu, Semisi Tora and Alipate Noilea - made the jump up from Group 11 to World Cup football. It will also be a step up in terms of financial rewards, with the players set to share the $300,000 prizemoney for making the semi-final.

The Spacemen generally pull a crowd of about 350 (gate takings of $2500), and the Fijian players were provided with a house, their grocery bill was paid and they earned a small match payment.

On the field, their defence was ferocious; off it, the Fijians brought tremendous culture to the club, said Cole, involving their teammates in prayer sessions before and after matches. The club is desperate to have them back for another crack at a premiership next year.

"We were competitive last year, so you'd have to think that if we could get the four back we might be able to go a step or two further. They're really busting to be able to play for Parkes again," Cole said.

First, though, they have to face the might of Australia. Fiji-born Kangaroo Petero Civoniceva is rapt with the Bati's progress but will put his sizeable body in their way on Sunday to block their path to the final.

"It's a fantastic achievement for them to have progressed to the semi-finals," he said "They've done everyone proud and the people back in Fiji would be just over the moon with what they've been able to achieve."

Civoniceva predicts the exposure of Fijian talent may help overcome a historic under-representation of players from the island nation in the NRL. He rates many of the side as "fantastic talents" who could develop into NRL first-graders.

"I've always wondered why NRL clubs haven't pushed harder in Fiji," he said. "The physical attributes of Fijians would be well suited and I think they would love it and really adapt to rugby league.

"Given the fact Fiji has had success here, it will definitely open the door for a lot more clubs to show a lot more interest in giving some opportunities to young kids over there and bringing them over to play."

No one's game to predict an upset, but Bill Wilson, president of the Terrigal Sharks - recent home of Waisele Sukanaveita and Vula Naqau - expects the Fijians to give a good account of themselves.

"They're tough young blokes," he said. "They won't run away. What they lack for in skills they certainly make up for in intensity, in their belief in themselves and in the powerful team spirit they have."