Former Wallabies captain Rocky Elsom has broken his silence after being sentenced to five years in prison in France last weekend with an international arrest warrant against him.
Elsom, who played 65 games for the NSW Waratahs and earned 75 caps for the Wallabies, was sentenced in absentia to five years in prison for misuse of company property during his tenure as chairman of French rugby club Narbonne.
Elsom was found guilty of forgery and had to repay €705,000 from his time at the club between 2015 and 2016.
He was accused of paying a former coach €79,000 without justification and hiring a general manager from Australia for €7,200 a month, even though he provided no services to the club.
The court imposed a sentence on Elsom that exceeded the prosecutor’s demand of two years.
The prosecutor alleged that Elsom ‘was untraceable and unreachable during the proceedings’ and the former Wallaby was convicted 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 in prison by a French court
The former Wallaby has requested copies of the documents used by French lawyer Patrick Tabet to secure the five-year prison sentence and has sought the help of a French lawyer.
“In the interests of a fair and just trial, I would like to ask Mr. Tabet to send me a complete list of the documents and files he used to secure the reported five-year prison sentence,” Elsom told the newspaper. Sydney Morning Herald.
“The fact that I am not allowed to defend the charges is a clear perversion of justice. I have little information about the evidence presented at the hearing (other) than (what) is in the public domain.
‘So I can only comment on the accusations that have been made publicly.
“I ask the public to consider the legitimacy of any process that does not allow 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 lawsuit was expedited after he gave an interview published in the Irish newspaper The Times.
When the Irish times When he contacted Elsom, the newspaper reported that he was reluctant to do interviews because he “didn’t want old acquaintances to find out through the media that he was back in town.”
However, Elsom claimed that his contact information was freely available, but no one had contacted him about the hearing that led to his convictions and subsequent arrest warrant.
“I have been contacted via my email address and telephone number, but it appears the legal process has moved quickly after an article recently appeared in The Sunday Times,” he said.
‘This article gave my location, occupation and upcoming planned events.
‘I have not been interviewed in this case and the lengthy process appears 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 the schoolboy second division side
Elsom left the Super Rugby competition after the 2008 season to join Irish club Leinster and help them win the Heineken Cup in 2009.
He turned down an invitation to celebrate the anniversary of that victory in 2019, but returned to Ireland earlier this year to coach Catholic University School (CUS) in the second division of Dublin’s rugby schools.
Despite having a rich history at Leinster, The Times reported that Leo Cullen was the only teammate who knew he would be back, 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 at a Pixies concert three days later. Elsom heard that by chance A Leinster reunion was planned for a few nights later.
The reunion was in honor of departing former operations manager Ronan O’Donnell and O’Kelly invited Elsom to come along.
The former Wallaby was reportedly reluctant due to his relationships with O’Donnell had not been good at the time.
The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that Elsom was believed to have been in Ireland last week and had been invited as a special guest to the big Leinster-Munster clash on Sunday (AEST).
With the international arrest warrant issued on Saturday, Australian time, the former Wallaby failed to show up at the match.
Narbonne initially found early success under Elsom’s leadership as he tore up the squad and adopted a ‘Moneyball’ approach to rival other money-making clubs.
In the short term, it teamed up with Narbonne on its way to reaching the French Top 14.
“I wasn’t the most popular man in town at the time, but in the long run I would have been less popular if those measures had not been taken,” Elsom told SBS in 2014.
However, that success never came, as Narbonne was relegated and Elsom left in 2016.