Former Wallabies captain Rocky Elsom has broken his silence after being sentenced to five years jail in France with an international arrest warrant issued for him last weekend.
Elsom, who played 65 matches for the NSW Waratahs and earned 75 caps for the Wallabies, was sentenced in absentia to five years in prison for misuse of corporate assets during his tenure as president of French rugby club Narbonne.
Elsom was found guilty of forgery and ordered to repay €705,000 ($1.1million) from his time at the club between 2015-16.
He was accused of paying €79,000 ($128,000) to a former coach without justification and hiring a general manager from Australia for €7,200 ($11,500) a month even though he did not provide services to the club.
The court handed Elsom a sentence exceeding the prosecutor’s request of two years.
The prosecution claimed Elsom was ‘untraceable and unreachable throughout the proceedings’ and the former Wallaby was sentenced in absentia, ultimately leading to the international arrest warrant.
However, Elsom has denied any wrongdoing in a bombshell statement.
An international arrest warrant has been issued for former Wallaby Rocky Elsom after he was sentenced to five years jail by a French court
The former Wallaby has requested copies of the documents French lawyer Patrick Tabet used to secure the five-year sentence and has engaged the services of a French lawyer.
‘In the interests of a fair and just process, I would ask Mr Tabet to send me a complete list of the documents and filings he used to secure the reported five year prison sentence,’ Elsom told the Sydney Morning Herald.
‘Not allowing me to defend the charges, is a clear perversion of justice. I have little more information on the evidence that was presented in the hearing (other) than (what) is in the public domain.
‘So, I can only address the allegations that have been raised publicly.
‘I ask the public to consider the legitimacy of any process that does not allow for the involvement of the person being prosecuted.’
Pictured from left to right: Rocky Elsom, Brian O’Driscoll, half Felipe Contepomi and Gordon D’Arcy celebrate winning the 2009 Heineken Cup with Leinster
Elsom claimed the court case was fast-tracked after he gave an interview that was published in Irish newspaper The Times.
When the Irish Times contacted Elsom, the newspaper reported he was reluctant to do any interviews because he ‘didn’t want some old acquaintances to discover via the media that he was back in town’.
However, Elsom claimed his contact details were freely available but nobody had approached him about the hearing that led to his sentences and subsequent warrant.
‘I have been contactable via my email address and phone number, yet it appears the court process was fast tracked after an article appeared recently in The Sunday Times,’ he said.
‘This article gave my location, occupation and upcoming scheduled events.
‘I have not been questioned in this matter and the lengthy process seems to have deliberately excluded me from giving evidence.’
Elsom (pictured right) had not been seen in Leinster for almost 15 years until he resurfaced in a coaching position for a schoolboys second-division side
Elsom left the Super Rugby competition after the 2008 season to join Irish club Leinster, helping them win the Heineken Cup in 2009.
He declined an invitation to celebrate the anniversary of that win in 2019, but returned to Ireland earlier this year to coach Catholic University School (CUS) in the second division of Dublin rugby schools.
Despite having a rich history with Leinster, The Times reported that the only teammate who knew he was coming back was Leo Cullen, and that was only because Elsom had contacted him looking for coaching work.
The Times reported that Elsom ran into former teammate Malcolm O’Kelly three days later at a Pixies concert. It was there Elsom learned by chance that a Leinster reunion had been planned for a couple of nights later.
The reunion was in honour of the departing former operations manager Ronan O’Donnell and O’Kelly invited Elsom to come along.
The former Wallaby was reportedly reluctant, because his relations with O’Donnell had not been good back in the day.
The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that Elsom was believed to have been in Ireland as recently as last week and had been invited as a special guest at the marquee Leinster-Munster clash on Sunday (AEST).
With the international arrest warrant issued on Saturday, Australian time, the former Wallaby was a no-show at the match.
Narbonne has initially enjoyed early success under Elsom’s stewardship as he tore up the roster and adopted a ‘Moneyball’ approach to be able to match it with other cashed-up clubs.
In the short term, it worked with Narbonne on track to reach the French Top 14.
‘I wasn’t the most popular guy in town at that time, but I would have been less popular in the long run had those measures not been taken,’ Elsom told SBS in 2014.
That success never came, though, with Narbonne relegated and Elsom exiting in 2016.
