Discreetly, without making it a matter of communication, the players and staff of Stade Toulouse passed through Cape Town this week, to pay a final tribute to Medhi Narjissi.
We could say a thousand things about this Sharks-Toulouse which will come on Saturday. How desirable it is, inevitably, when we find half of the French XV on the pitch facing another half, that of South Africa, incidentally double world champion and who, oh! sadness, eliminated the Blues from the World Cup the last time they met.
There will therefore be there, at the Kings Park stadium in Durban, Antoine Dupont and Siya Kolisi, already captains fifteen months ago at the Stade de France for this sinister quarter-final. There will be Ramos, Mauvaka, Ntamack, Flament, Cros or Meafou; Mbonambi, Etzebeth, Hendrikse, Am, Mapimpi, Nche, Koch and all the others. What beautiful people.
We could dwell on the immense forces present and the peak of intensity that we expect from this firework-like encounter. However, it’s something else that caught our attention this week. Something about which, in fact, we know nothing or very little. This is precisely what we like.
Tribute in all discretion
Having left early for South Africa, on Sunday, Stade Toulouse had anticipated its departure by a day because it had a stopover on its schedule. That of the heart, bruised to infinity. On its way to Durban, the delegation led by President Lacroix stopped in Cape Town, its postcard setting at the end of the world. It was there, facing the roaring and dead ocean, that they paid the tribute they owed to one of their own: Medhi Narjissi, tragically disappeared in the tumult of these unforgiving waters. .
Beyond the process, we will ultimately have appreciated that nothing, or very little, has been made public on this subject. No photo, no video, no comment. Neither on the club’s official communication channels, nor on the players’ private accounts, to whom the message had been sent to keep this moment to themselves. In the privacy of a group on a mission, on South African lands, and not only for the sporting challenge that awaits them.
In a world where everything in one’s life is staged, even the most private, where a plate at a restaurant deserves a story and a seaside vacation a documentary in 6 episodes, Toulouse and its leaders had therefore chosen discretion, the one that suits me best and best for contemplation. Time for thought, for memory, for Medhi, far from the screens and the logic of communication which inflates everything and makes a world out of nothing. Refocused on this moment of individual and collective value, Toulouse was then able to finally head towards Durban. The duty of homage accomplished, in a secret of just circumstance. It’s not that bad. In life, not everything is good to say or show.
