Star signing at Stade Francais: former Toulouse centre Gael Fickou
PICTURE: Getty Images

Heads are rolling in Paris. Not quite as many that once did so literally during the bloodthirsty days of the French Revolution.
But, all the same, Stade Francais have sent a batch of nine contracted players to their own version of the guillotine as surely as though they had carted them to the scaffold. Not a single aristocrat amongst them this time, but plenty of sporting class. Insufficient, however, for a fabled club whose new billionaire owner signed their demise with a flourish.
A fate as inevita...