Former Leinster and Australia international Rocky Elsom has been given a two-year jail term after a French court on Friday found him guilty of misusing corporate resources while president of Narbonne.
Elsom (42), who was in Narbonne from 2013 to 2016, was convicted in absentia and an international arrest warrant was issued for him. The court also imposed a fine of €100,000 on him, with half of the amount suspended, as stated in the Narbonne court's decision.
In February, the state prosecutor asked for Elsom to be sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of €630,000, and his case was retried after an appeal against the original five-year sentence handed down in October 2024. He denied all charges.
At his trial in October 2024, which he also did not attend, Elsom was found guilty of forgery, using forged documents and misappropriating corporate assets.
The forgery charges were dropped at a trial in 2025, but Elsom must pay the club's liquidator €219,760 in compensation.
A powerful wide forward, Elsom played 75 Test matches for the Wallabies and captained the team from 2009 until the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
He was named man of the match when he won the Heineken Cup in 2009 with Leinster, playing alongside stars such as Johnny Sexton and Brian O'Driscoll.
Originally from Melbourne, Elsom had been living in Ireland since August 2024 but left the country after an international arrest warrant was issued. Elsom denied any wrongdoing and said Narbonne was in good standing under his leadership.
“[The club] achieved significant profits, showed good sporting results and remained in Pro D2 [French rugby’s second tier] until 2016 and beyond,” he said in a statement in October. “It seems that I have been singled out as a scapegoat for the subsequent mismanagement of this renowned rugby club.”
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Narbonne were two-time French rugby champions in 1936 and 1979, and three-time runners-up. The club was dissolved in 2018 and currently plays in the third division Fédérale.
Elsom, who also played Super Rugby for the Waratahs and Brumbies, was working as a school coach in Dublin around the time the arrest warrant was issued against him.
Four months ago, in an interview on YouTube, he said that he immediately left the country, taking with him
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
