Rugby Legend Rocky Elsom Faces Imprisonment for Financial Foul Play

Rocky Elsom, the former captain of the Australian national rugby team, the Wallabies, has been handed a two-year prison sentence by a French court.

The conviction stems from financial misconduct that occurred while he was the president of the French rugby club Narbonne. The prosecutors sought a harsher penalty.

Found guilty of misusing company assets during his leadership in the 2015-16 season, the 42-year-old was also fined 100,000 euros, half of which is suspended. An international warrant has been issued for Elsom, whose current whereabouts are unknown.

The international warrant was issued on October 12 last year after Elsom was found guilty in absentia of fraud, having embezzled 700,000 Euros.

The latest sentence follows a previous five-year term from October 2024, which was reduced on appeal, and while the forgery charges were dropped in the recent retrial, Elsom was ordered to pay 219,760 euros in compensation to Narbonne’s liquidator.

The Melbourne-born who played 75 tests for Australia and famously won the Heineken Cup with Leinster in 2009 has consistently denied any wrongdoing. He was the man of the match in the win that year.

He took control of Narbonne, a club with a rich history but which ultimately went into liquidation in 2018 and now plays in the lower French league.

Narbonne won the French rugby championship in 1936 and 1979. The club went into liquidation in 2018 after financial difficulties and now competes in the third-tier Federal league.

The prominent flanker who captained the Wallabies from 2009 to 2011 had reportedly been living in Ireland, but it is believed to have left after an initial arrest warrant was issued in 2024. He is the most capped blindside flanker of all time.