Rocky Elsom in action during his Leinster days
Rocky Elsom has revealed that he is living out of a backpack having gone into hiding, after an international arrest warrant was issued last month by French police for the former Australia captain.
Elsom was sentenced by a French court to five years in prison for forgery and embezzlement relating to his time as club president of Narbonne, with Elsom ordered to pay €700,000 (£583,000). He won 75 caps for Australia and was a key figure in Leinster’s 2009 Heineken Cup win.
At the time of the arrest warrant, Elsom was based in Dublin, giving an interview to The Sunday Times where he revealed he was coaching rugby at a local school. Elsom, speaking from an unknown location, added that he was now being helped out by friends while living out of a rucksack.
“As soon as I saw the news reports, I just packed straight away. I was packing when people were calling me to tell me what they’d read,” Elsom told the Daily Mail. “I was only in Dublin for six weeks. I was there on a holiday visa. I left all my things behind. I just had a backpack when I left, with two shirts and a washbag. It’s unusual to think that you wake up one day and you’re convicted of something and sentenced to prison when you had no idea you were on trial. There doesn’t seem like there was any genuine attempt to contact me prior to it.”
Following the newspaper interview the Gardai in Ireland contacted Elsom and said they would bring him in.
“They came to Catholic University School, they came to my home and, when they couldn’t find me, they called me and said, ‘If you’re in Ireland, we’re going to bring you in’. I said, ‘That’s good, I’m not in Ireland’.”
Elsom added that he was struggling to make money, relying on friends and savings having previously worked as a builder, and that he was trying to make contact with the people at Narbonne who handled the club’s accounts when he was president who “are in possession of some of the information that could exonerate me”.
Elsom insisted that there was “no mismanagement”, that “there are quite a few things that don’t add up”, claiming that Narbonne were attempting to “rewrite the story of 2018” when the club changed coach and ended the season in administration.
“The biggest thing I guess is that I don’t think the allegations can show any harm was done to the club,” Elsom concluded.
