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To understand French rugby, the small southern town of Narbonne is not a bad place to start. Surrounded by bigger and wealthier neighbours like Perpignan and Toulouse, Narbonne always prided itself on its ability to compete against the best regardless of the odds. Rugby levelled the playing field and consistently brought pride to a place that would otherwise be largely ignored by the rest of France.
In the centre of Narbonne is a beautiful covered market filled with fresh produce from local farmers and fishermen. There are huge posters of club legends hanging everywhere. There is no escape from the game. The form of the five-eighth is discussed as readily as the freshness of bread. As a former coach of the club, Australian Matt Williams could normally expect to be greeted with hearty pats on the back and free samples, but the former Waratahs coach received a colder reception when he went to buy fruit in 2016.
Narbonne supporters show their passion in the club’s distinctive orange colours at Parc des Sports et de l’Amitié.Credit: Icon Sport via Getty Images
“There’s too much distrust with Australians because of what’s occurred with [Rocky] Elsom and [sports management group] FGM, I’m happy to have it on the record,” said Williams, who splits his time between Narbonne and Sydney.
“They [the town] feel duped. They feel betrayed, everyone from the mayor right down to the people in the markets.
“You know, a lady said to me in the market, she runs a fruit store there, and she just looked at me one day … and she just pointed a knife at me. She had a knife, she was cutting up something, and she just said, ‘You Australians, you ruined us’. I felt deep shame. Not that I’d done anything, I’d done everything right.”
In 1979, Narbonne were champions of France, but by the time former Wallabies captain Elsom arrived in 2014 the glory days had long since passed. The club was in the second division and fighting for promotion. Elsom’s arrival had been preceded in 2011 by a group of Australian investors called FG Management headed by former world champion Wallabies coach Bob Dwyer and former Waratahs general manager Dave Gibson. Neither Dwyer nor Gibson is accused of any wrongdoing.
Williams spent a single season in 2011-12 in a combination of roles that included sporting director, coach and general manager, before leaving. He is not accused of any wrongdoing.
Justin Harrison coaching in Narbonne in 2012.
The arrival of the Australians started with great hope, and now has ended with Elsom facing an international arrest warrant.
Brice Ivanovic is a former journalist for South of France newspaper L’Independant who covered the rugby club closely during the years of Australian ownership. Initially, he describes the hope that was brought to the town.
“When the group of Australian investors [FG Management] arrived in 2011-2012, the city and the fans were happy,” Ivanovic said. “At the time, the club was threatened with administrative relegation due to financial problems. The project was attractive, with attractive first recruits like [Wallabies] Julian Huxley, Josh Valentine and [coach] Justin Harrison.
World Cup-winning former Wallabies coach Bob Dwyer was part of the ownership group who bought Narbonne.Credit: Fairfax
“A name like Rocky [Elsom] is the stuff of dreams for an entire city. The 2013-2014 season was exceptional, with a semi-final and an unbeaten home record. A whole nation believed that the great Narbonne was back.”
The FG Management model of ownership for Narbonne was originally predicated on restoring the town’s pride through smart acquisitions of experienced players and developing local talent, not dissimilar to baseball’s “moneyball” approach. When the group took over the club, Narbonne was in desperate need of capital to survive and the Australians were the saviours.
Speaking in 2011, the club’s then president, Louis Madaule, welcomed the arrival of the Australians.
“The confirmation of the arrival of FG Management is a guarantee of stability,” Madaule said.
Narbonne was selected by FG Management due to the involvement as a player and official of Anthony Hill, a former Randwick player who was club president before Elsom and who still lives in the town.
Elsom training with the Barbarians in 2009.Credit: Steve Christo
Over the previous decade, Elsom had become renowned as one of the world’s best rugby players. He had a stint after school with the Bulldogs NRL club before making his debut for the Waratahs in 2003 and the Wallabies in 2005.
He was a mainstay of the Wallabies but in 2008 he suddenly signed a season-long deal to play for Irish province Leinster. The ARU announced it would release Elsom mid-contract for “compassionate reasons”, and sources familiar with the situation, who requested anonymity to speak freely, said the move was at least partly motivated by Elsom facing financial difficulties with Australian business interests.
Elsom starred for the Michael Cheika-coached Leinster, leading the team to a European Cup title and winning the European player-of-the-year award before returning to Australia. He was made captain of the Wallabies by Robbie Deans, but he was replaced on the eve of the 2011 World Cup.
Elsom was rarely able to recapture the form how had shown for Leinster, however, and he struggled with injuries at the Brumbies and Waratahs after returning. A reclusive, eccentric character who often trained on his own, some teammates found it difficult to connect with the enigmatic Elsom.
Elsom left Australia to play for Kobe in Japan in 2013 but ended up in a legal fight with the club after failing a medical test on an injured shoulder. He joined Toulon briefly on a short-term deal before finally moving to Narbonne in 2014, playing nine games.
Elsom also assumed the duties of running Narbonne, despite having no experience in sports administration.
“I provided the essential capital required to keep the club afloat before the 2013-14 season, in return for the majority ownership,” Elsom explained to Nine newspapers columnist Peter FitzSimons this week.
From 2014 to 2016, Elsom was president of the club and has conceded he became unpopular in the town as he slashed player wages and let club favourites depart. Never an extroverted communicator, Elsom kept his cards very close to his chest and rarely spoke publicly.
Rocky Elsom on the charge against the All Blacks in 2010.Credit: Dallas Kilponen
“Owner, chairman, player and almost coach. Have you ever seen that anywhere in professional rugby?” Ivanovic said. “It’s a completely crazy situation. Conflicts in the dressing room erupted. Rocky didn’t trust anyone, not even Justin Harrison who was the [coach].
“The arrival of [All Blacks legend] Jerry Collins [in 2015] sounded like a positive parenthesis during the season. The club saved itself but internally, his management was very tough. The club didn’t communicate or have a website. The staff were suffering under his management. Relations with the city and other partners had become difficult. And everyone began to wonder where the money was going.”
Tragically, Collins and his wife died in a car accident in 2015 while playing for Narbonne.
The Herald spoke to several Australians connected to Narbonne at the time who declined to comment on the record but painted a chaotic picture of unfulfilled promises and distrust.
Elsom’s arrest last week even created sharp divide among his ex-teammates and colleagues. Messages spun around chat groups, and while some rallied and offered Elsom support, others were firm on having no interest.
Tension with the people of Narbonne grew after Elsom took control and shut down the historical inputs provided by the mayor and the city [which contributes to the club’s funding], supporters and the amateur academy attached to the club. There was a need for Elsom to not only manage the professional side of things but also an expectation of managing multiple local stakeholders who wanted to give their input.
After a crisis meeting in early 2015 with Elsom, the mayor’s office and the representatives of the amateur arm of Narbonne rugby, which runs the academy, then mayor Didier Mouly said in a report: “There is a clear lack of communication between the SASP [professional club] led by Rocky Elsom and the partners.
“Let’s be honest, when the Australians took over and saved the club in 2011, everyone was happy. The purpose of this meeting was simply to reaffirm what the city expects from the owners of Racing [Narbonne]. I am not interested in the sporting aspect, I simply want the people of Narbonne to be more involved.”
A retrospective on Elsom in French newspaper Midi Olympique in 2018 said: “We have never seen such a secretive president. His confidences to the press were as rare as those of the Queen of England. He seemed to take a malicious pleasure in cutting the club off from the city, its supporters, its elected officials, its partners and all the media.”
Elsom conceded he became “unpopular” in town when he began changing the squad in 2014, and he explained this week some of the secrecy was necessary.
“I was very secretive about potential player signings. Almost every player signed with Narbonne did so as a last resort, so I never announced a recruit until their contract was registered with the league, at which time, it became public knowledge,” Elsom told FitzSimons. “Whenever news broke that a player we wanted was thinking of signing with us, another club would offer them more money and they’d take it.”
Elsom’s leadership came under particular scrutiny when the club was under financial strain in 2015 and a purported representative of the billion-dollar Qatar Investment Authority expressed interest in buying Narbonne.
I was very secretive about potential player signings.
Rocky Elsom
Many were excited by the glamorous proposal but Elsom wasn’t convinced about the legitimacy of the representative and knocked it back, infuriating local supporters, sponsors and the mayor.
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Harrison departed the club in early 2016 due to differences with Elsom.
Money to save the club was raised by local investors in 2016 and Elsom diluted his ownership stake, but he departed the club soon after. Elsom said this week his rejection of the proposed Qatar deal soured relations with stakeholders and the town so much, his position became untenable.
Narbonne were placed into administration and relegated into a third division competition in 2018.
Elsom claims he left the club in sound financial health and the relegation was due to the mismanagement of his successors.
Elsom and FMG emerged in 2017 as a potential investor in the Melbourne Rebels but the reclusive figure has otherwise kept a very low profile, running a construction business in Queensland and avoiding rugby functions.
More than seven years after his departure from Narbonne, Elsom last week learned he had been the subject of court proceedings in the city where he was found guilty of misappropriating a total of €700,000 ($1.13 million) stemming from his 2015-16 term as president of the Narbonne. An international arrest warrant was issued for Elsom, prompting headlines all over the world.
Rocky Elsom has vowed to appeal against his conviction.Credit: Marija Ercegovac
Elsom, who was in Dublin on a short-term coaching stint at Catholic University School, only learned of his conviction via media reports. In a subsequent statement to this masthead Elsom insisted that he is innocent and the former Wallabies captain plans to appeal and clear his name.
Elsom claimed it was a “perversion of justice” given he was never informed about the court case.
“In France they say the rumour is the bazooka,” Elsom said. “I don’t expect to see anything incriminating in the court documents because there is nothing that says money was improperly spent.”
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Today, Narbonne club are in the third tier of French rugby and are slowly rebuilding on and off the field. They recently lost a play-off game to be promoted back up to the second division by a single point.
Ivanovic believes that the people of Narbonne would like to see Elsom return to France to face the charges.
“The Narbonne fans would have liked to see him explain himself in court,” Ivanovic said. “Unfortunately, they suspect that the damage will never be repaired.”
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