the essential
Suspended by the Federation after the disappearance of Medhi Narjissi, the manager of the France U18 team studied in the Gers during his young years as a Rugby player. The opportunity for his former coaches to show him their support.
“To see someone you know well in trouble is complicated.” With restraint, Roland Pujo does not hide his emotion when talking about his former protégé Stéphane Cambos, today in the spotlight for very sad reasons.
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Disappearance of Medhi Narjissi: “It’s called an execution”… The manager of the French U18 team files a complaint against the FFR
As a reminder, the manager of the French U18 team was suspended by the French Rugby Federation on August 15 following the disappearance of young Stade Toulousain player Medhi Narjissi, swept away by the current on August 7 at Dias Beach, in Africa South. A drama where the versions conflict (read box) but which affects “everyone” says Roland Pujo, who had the 52-year-old technician under his orders in Auch, in the 90s. Without predicting the conclusions of the judicial investigation opened at the end of August, the former FCAG coach calls for moderation in this matter. “The media side should not prevail over reason,” he urges, pained for the fate of his former player.
“These are not easy times to live through”
Roland Pujo indeed has very good memories of Stéphane Cambos, who played for the FCAG cadet and junior teams, before joining the first team, where he played three seasons (from 1995 to 1998). “He was a very good player, a very good attacker, capable of playing three-quarter center, at the opening as well. Stéphane is a very intelligent boy in his rugby approach. He was an excellent player with an excellent state of play. “spirit. I had a very good relationship with him when I coached him during that period”, recalls the former coach and father of Frédéric Pujo, current coach of the RCA backs.
For Roland Pujo, Stéphane Cambos was already showing at this time the beginnings of a coaching career which he would later embrace, at US Tyrosse in particular, before joining the federal management. “He had this rugby intelligence, he was a calm, calm person. He was interested in the game, he thought a lot about the game. I’m not surprised that he pursued his career in rugby, I I think he was programmed for that,” observes the ex-FCAG coach. He continues: “He is someone for whom I have respect and I have fond memories of him.”
Roland Pujo is not the only one. Coach in different categories of the FCAG from 1985 to 2007, Gérard Lacrampe also remembers the image of an “excellent player”, “technical” and endowed with a “very good reading of the game”. Close to the father of Stéphane Cambos, whom he worked with in teaching, he is not indifferent to the news of the manager of the France U18 team. “I told him to convey my support. These are not easy times to live through, neither for Medhi Narjissi’s family, and it is even harder for her, nor for all those who participated in the supervision , nor for the players who were close to the kid. It’s difficult for everyone,” he concludes.
Two versions oppose each other within the staff
Suspended by the Federation on August 15, Stéphane Cambos has since filed a complaint against the FFR, as revealed on September 30 by our colleagues from the newspaper Sud Ouest. “Today, we are sacrificing a man, pillorying him, we are burdening him with all the evils,” declared his lawyer, Me Arnaud Dupin, recalling the principle of the presumption of innocence. Targeted by the federal conclusions of the internal investigation report, the manager of the French U18 team assures in his version of the facts that he was not at the origin of the session at sea which turned into a tragedy, a version firmly contested by the physical trainer Robin Ladauge. “The manager’s version consisting of claiming that the swim was the result of the decision of a single man (Editor’s note: that of the physical trainer), and that he supposedly stopped as soon as he arrived on the beach, is not tenable and purely false”, indicates in particular the text sent to the newspaper L’Équipe by Robin Ladauge’s lawyer, Me Kerzerho.
