Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Fixtures revised as France pull out of U18 International Series

General view of a sign warning of dangerous sea conditions at Dias Beach where Medhi Narjissi, a 17-year-old French schoolboy, went missing last Wednesday (Photo by Rodger Bosch/AFP via Getty Images)

SA Rugby have announced a revised fixtures list for its U18 International Series following the withdrawal of France after tragedy struck their squad last Wednesday. Out-half Medhi Narjissi was swept out to sea when hit by a wave while taking part in a recovery session at Dias Beach on the Cape of Good Hope.

ADVERTISEMENT

With the 17-year-old son of former Agen hooker Jalil Narjissi still reported missing, the FFR confirmed on Thursday they would not be playing their planned matches versus the hosts South Africa, England and Georgia in the six-team festival and would instead fly home.

With France unavailable, tournament organisers have now revised the schedule to ensure the three remaining touring teams – England, Georgia and Ireland – will still get to play three matches. They have done this by limiting the SA A team to just one match and cutting South Africa to two games.

Video Spacer

‘They are humans’: Pumas learn valuable lesson in win over All Blacks | The Rugby Championship

Video Spacer

‘They are humans’: Pumas learn valuable lesson in win over All Blacks | The Rugby Championship

A statement read: “The French U18 team have decided to withdraw from the International Series following the tragic event earlier this week when one of their players, Medhi Narjissi, was swept out to sea during a recovery session at Cape Point.

“The annual U18 series in South Africa is scheduled to start on Monday in Cape Town. The French squad returned home on Friday evening. The schedule for the series has been revised following the withdrawal of France, with each round consisting of two matches which ensures that none of the remaining travelling teams’ fixtures are affected.

Related

“The first round kicks off at Stellenberg High School in Cape Town on Monday, with the SA U18 clash with France cancelled, while the SA U18 A team’s three matches were reduced to one, against Georgia. Georgia, who were originally scheduled to play the SA U18 A-side twice and France once, will now face England in their second match on Friday, and they will play Ireland on Tuesday, August 20, on the last of the three match days.

“Mark Alexander, president of the South African Rugby Union, earlier this week sent a message of condolences to the Narjissi family and the French rugby community following the tragic events a few days ago.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Revised U18 International Series fixtures:
Monday, August 12 (Stellenberg HS)
13h30 (local time): England vs Ireland
15h30: South Africa A vs Georgia

Friday, August 16 (Paarl Gimnasium)
13h30: Georgia vs England
15h30: South Africa vs Ireland

Tuesday, August 20 (Paarl Boys HS)
13h30: South Africa vs England
15h30: Ireland vs Georgia

Related

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

287 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Why Freddy Douglas has played for Scotland before Edinburgh Why Freddy Douglas has played for Scotland before Edinburgh
Search