On-the-run rugby player Rocky Elsom handed two-year jail sentence in France

Former Leinster and Australia player Rocky Elsom was sentenced to two years in jail after a French court on Friday found him guilty of misusing corporate assets while president of French club Narbonne.

Elsom (42), who was at Narbonne from 2013-16, was convicted in absentia and an international warrant has been issued for his arrest. He was also ordered to pay a €100,000 fine, with half the sum suspended, a ruling from the Narbonne court showed.

In February, the public prosecutor had requested three years' imprisonment and a €630,000 fine for Elsom, who was retried after appealing an initial five-year prison sentence handed down in October 2024. He has denied the charges.

At the October 2024 trial, which he also did not attend, Elsom had been found guilty of forgery, use of forgery and misuse of corporate assets.

The forgery charges were dropped from the 2025 trial but Elsom has to pay compensation of €219,760 to the club's liquidator.

A powerful blindside flanker, Elsom played 75 tests for the Wallabies and captained the team from 2009 until just before the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

He was named man of the match when he won the 2009 Heineken Cup with Leinster alongside the likes of Johnny Sexton and Brian O’Driscoll.

Born in Melbourne, Elsom had been living in Ireland since August 2024 but fled the country after an international arrest warrant was issued against him. Elsom denied any wrongdoing and said that under his leadership Narbonne was in a healthy position.

“[The club] achieved solid profits, had good sporting results, and remained in Pro D2 [the second tier of French rugby] until 2016 and beyond,” he said in a statement in October. “It seems that I have been targeted as a scapegoat for the future mismanagement of