Northland captain,Mosese Qionimacawa, started at blindside flanker against Naitasiri.

Northland may have lost its first 2021 Skipper Cup match over the weekend but they boast the youngest squad in the competition.

New Head Coach Isake ‘Eyes’ Katonibau believes in order to implement new ideas he has to take risks and they need to be bold in how they approach things.

The former national 7s skipper says only three players in his squad are over 30, there’re two 25 year olds and majority played in the under 19 competition last year which includes the captain Mosese Qionimacawa.

Qionimacawa was the Ratu Kadavulevu School Head-boy last year and led Northland against Naitasiri.

At 19, loose-forward Qionimacawa is the youngest senior team captain in Skipper Cup.

Katonibau says he has given ownership to all the young players and even though they lost they’ll be back stronger this week.

‘You know it’s a great opportunity for them as well because I believe when I was young I wanted to play Skipper, I wanted to captain the side the coaches said you are too young, you’re too young to be playing at Skipper Cup level, you’re too young to be captaining the side so right now my team is captained by a 19 year old Mosese Qionimacawa’.

It was a great learning experience for the young players like Qionimacawa and Jovilisi Taraka who started for Northland against Naitasiri.

Katonibau adds if we introduce young players early in our top competition then it’ll be great for Fiji Rugby.

‘I believe in these young players we develop them, and it’s for the betterment of Fiji rugby because if there’s a lot of young players playing at Skipper Cup level, we are helping with development’.

Northland will have their first away game on Saturday where they’ll play Tailevu at the Nakelo District School ground

In other games, Suva battles Rewa at Burebasaga ground, Naitasiri takes on Nadi in the Farebrother challenge at Prince Charles Park and Namosi faces Nadroga at Thompson Park in Navua.