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Parents break silence on disappearance of Medhi Narjissi – report

Toulouse youths player Medhi Narjissi (Screengrab via Instagram)

Jalil Narjissi, the former Agen hooker, and his wife Valerie have broken their silence on the tragic disappearance of their son Medhi on tour with the France U18s in South Africa. The French team were in the southern hemisphere for the annual six-team International Series when the 17-year-old Toulouse fly-half was swept away by a wave and the current off the Cape of Good Hope on August 7.

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It had been decided that the squad should do a recovery session in the water at Dias beach but a disaster materialised when Narjissi got into difficulties. It was then 11 days ago, on August 16, when the FFR temporarily suspended all its U18 staff due to its ongoing investigation into the tragedy.

Having returned from a visit to South Africa, the Narjissi family spoke for the first time on Tuesday about the loss of their son and their anger was immense. While Jalil Narjissi admitted it wasn’t unusual for French teams to visit the Cape of Good Hope, he explained that recovery swims had never taken place at Dias beach.

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In an extensive question and answer transcript published on rugbyrama.fr, Narjissi said: “What I know, after a long week of conducting our own investigation, is that the French teams go to the Cape of Good Hope every year, for a day of discovery, with a visit to the port. But they have never done this recovery swim at this place.

“You are on one of the most dangerous beaches in South Africa; we have met a few surfers who themselves told us that the site is very dangerous, with huge waves, rip currents that sweep you away and carry you away. The sand creates holes under your feet. You don’t have to be a pro coach to understand that it’s dangerous. Any person, any parent… It’s unimaginable.”

Narjissi, who went on you detail the involvements of the French staff on the beach and their unsatisfactory reaction to the emergency that unfolded, heralded the actions of the one teammate who tried to rescue Medhi.

“Oscar, he is a hero to me. He had the balls to go. Even if he could not do anything, he is my hero. And no adult moved? Another child almost died… Oscar took more than 20 minutes to get back to the shore when he is two metres tall and a good swimmer. And no adult did anything. They left them in the water.

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“It’s not an accident, it was caused. A bus accident, a plane crash, or if Medhi gets hurt and becomes paraplegic, we are all sorry, dejected. But not this, not something like that. They played with the lives of our children. It was ours who disappeared. Medhi was our son, but they also played with the lives of other children.”

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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.

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