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| - Defensive lynchpin Gael Fickou will be centre of attention in Friday's opening Top 14 play-off between Stade Francais and Racing 92, the influential midfielder having made a controversial mid-season cross-city switch from the former to the latter. The France centre left Stade under a cloud, having played just 32 games in his two-and-a-half seasons there after a big-money transfer from Toulouse in 2018. Racing owner Jacky Lorenzetti bought out the player's contract, with two years to run, and Fickou was in April brought into a team where he was immediately aligned with Fiji-born international teammate Virimi Vakawata. "Proper fans, my friends and Stade Francais players know very well that I accepted to leave because that would allow the club to recruit five players and because I was never there," Fickou said at the time, also alluding to his international committment under strict Covid-19 restrictions. The last outing between the two sides, in May, saw Stade run out 35-29 winners, although Fickou was contractually not allowed to play in that game. Racing flanker Boris Palu, speaking after last weekend's final regular-season 55-12 victory over Brive, said: "Preparation will be short but we spoke about it before the match. "We spoke amongst ourselves that Stade were the opponents we were hoping for. "They beat us at home and we beat them on their patch. It's the derby and it's always a massive match." It is hard to believe that Stade were sitting in ninth place at the end of March, with all but vague dreams of a play-off spot. "Personally I didn't believe it, I'd told myself the season was over," Stade full-back Kylan Hamdaoui told AFP. But Gonzalo Quesada's team then put together a string of six straight victories to set up the derby against Racing and be able to think of a first semi-final since they last won the title, in 2015. Quesada returned to Stade at the start of a season made tricky by positive Covid-19 cases and the death of club icon Christophe Dominici. The ex-Argentina fly-half, who played for Stade in the 2004-5 season and had already been coach (2013-17), had set out an ambitious stall: to establish the club among the top six in France and return to European Champions Cup action. Heady ambitions for a club that was stuck in 14th and final spot with just five victories at the moment last season was put on ice because of the coronavirus pandemic. But a nail-biting 12-9 victory over Bayonne last week sealed a sixth and final spot in the play-offs. Saturday's second play-off sees Bordeaux-Begles host Clermont, with the winners of that encounter taking on Toulouse in the semi-finals. The victors of the Parisian derby will determine whether Fickou will have another run out against a second former club, the winners slated to play Toulouse. Fixtures (all 1845GMT) Friday Racing 92 v Stade Francais Saturday Bordeaux-Begles v Clermont Semi-finals Friday, June 18 La Rochelle v winners of Racing 92 v Stade Francais Saturday, June 19 Toulouse v winners of Bordeaux-Begles v Clermont Final, Stade de France Friday, June 25 lp/nr
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