A rugby union club in Melbourne has turned its fortunes around with the help of some young Fijian imports.

The players are part of a unique scholarship programme with the Box Hill Broncos and their coach says the Fijian imports have had a lot to do with the team’s improved performance.

“Last year we went through and we lost against every team. Today we’ve beaten every team in the competition,” coach Andrew Slyfield said.

Slyfield says the new players “bring skill, they bring speed for us, they bring a confidence”.

“They’re probably quite a calming influence for us because it’s not all show, it’s out there going, it’s okay to trust your abilities.”

The players have come from the small island of Ovalau, where opportunities – both on and off the field – are limited.

The organisation Youth With a Mission has set up Rugby Plus on the island, an initiative to harness the love of rugby and use it to improve people’s lives.

Head of the programme, Ili Tabua, a former Australian test player and former Fijian coach, says rugby is “a religion” in Fiji.

“Everybody plays rugby. Any afternoon you go around to every grass patch on the island and you see young kids, toddlers from two years old, running around throwing a football,” he said.

Tabua says the aim of the programme is to bring the discipline of the game off the field and into the everyday lives of the players.

“If you’re already a champion off the field in your life – with your relationship with your family, your friends, your community and those around you – then everything will transform itself into the 80 minutes which is just a rugby game,” he said.

Fijian players Save Waqaluquduadua and Felipe Koroibola are the cream of the Rugby Plus programme’s crop.

Coming to Melbourne from their small villages on Ovalau is a big change, but one that’s helped them to grow.

“The first time I went to Box Hill it was hard for me to speak to the other players,” Koroibola said.

“But when the game was going, it opened me to speak to them and to know them, know their heart so they can know me and so we can know each other in playing.”

In Fiji, they say you either play or you pray and many here do both.

Like rugby, Christianity is a big part of the young men’s lives and they practice their religion like they play – exuberantly.

“Mentally, physically and here with the programme, I’ve grown spiritually as well,” Waqaluquduadua said.

The player’s faith has influenced their engagement with the community in Melbourne.

Once a week they head to St Kilda to help feed the homeless. On one occasion, the rest of the team joined them.

It’s activities like this that have helped the Broncos bond off the field.

“Off field, they’ve changed a lot of perspective’s of the younger generations at the club and even older boys,” Broncos captain Sione Puamau said. “It’s helped them become better people off the field, and on field they’re just massive talents.”

The partnership between Rugby Plus and Box Hill has been so successful that three Fijians have been selected in the training squad for Melbourne Rising, the feeder club to the Melbourne Rebels Super 12 side.

It’s an opportunity these players are grabbing with both hands.

“It has taken me to places where I have never been before. I have achieved things I have never achieved before and I really see things I have never seen before,” Waqaluquduadua said.

"The sky’s the limit. I’m aiming to represent Australia wearing that yellow jersey,” Koroibola said.