Applause on this beach which brought so many tears. The Stade Toulouse players, who will play their third European Cup match this Saturday in South Africa against the Durban Sharks, were at the start of the week 1,500 km away, at the Cape of Good Hope, in the cove where Medhi Narjissi, captain of the French under-18 team, tragically disappeared at sea last summer.
Antoine Dupont and his teammates gathered at the scene of the tragedy in memory of the young hopeful from Stade Toulouse, a talented 17-year-old scrum half. A desire of the club which prepared this tribute in conjunction with the family, Valérie, the mother, Inès the sister and Jalil the father, for whom returning to the scene was too difficult.
“We planned to stay the whole week in South Africa,” announced President Didier Lacroix. This will allow us to give a nod to a country that touched us and that touched one of us last summer. We will go for a time of meditation there. » The Rouge et Noir went there, in complete discretion, before flying to Durban this Tuesday evening. An intimate moment, internal to the group, on which no player, manager or member of staff will react. No images of this moment of contemplation will be shared publicly.
These last few days have been full of emotions. Last Saturday, a reshuffled Toulouse team, with many of Medhi Narjissi's teammates, held their own against La Rochelle in the Top 14 (22-19 defeat). Back on the field for this match after six months of a serious injury (ankle and fibula), the experienced pillar Cyril Baille (31 years old), had already had words for this young teammate who tragically passed away. “I have a big thought this evening for the Narjissi family,” he declared on Canal +. Because we were with young people of the same generation as him. I think of his entire family from the bottom of my heart. »
On August 7, during a recovery session organized by the French team management on Dias Beach near the Cape of Good Hope, the young U 18 international was swept away by the current. A tribute had already been paid to him in September at the Ernest-Wallon stadium on the sidelines of the Top 14 meeting between Stade Toulouse and La Rochelle.
