I chatted to Rocky Elsom after he had been sentenced to five years in jail. He seemed strangely calm

Rocky Elsom on the blower, Monday evening.

The call had been arranged by a mutual friend in the Wallaby community, who had worked closely with the former Wallaby captain and knew him well.

As one who had also played in French rugby for many years, and understood how French rugby clubs worked, would I be happy to chat to Elsom, who had been convicted in absentia in a French court last week and sentenced to five years imprisonment for embezzling money while president of the Narbonne Rugby Club last decade?

I would. Send me his number.

And now, here was the man himself, coming through loud and clear from somewhere in, or just outside of, Dublin – not from under the bed, but more likely resting comfortably upon a hotel bed. We agreed he would give me a background briefing which I would tape, though nothing would go on the record.

We talked for half an hour. He was calm, and not nearly as shaken as I would expect of one who had such a conviction and sentence against his name, let alone being something close to the focus of an international manhunt.

In his situation, I would have been whispering in the manner of a man indeed hiding under the bed, but he was not remotely like that. Far from sounding like one in fear of imminent arrest, for whom every knock on the door right now surely sounds like thunder, he had the air of a man who wanted to do what he could to clear up some grave misunderstandings that had so very unfortunately been put against his name.

As gently as I could, I put it to him that, mate, you are really in deep trouble here, and I am surprised your tone is not more . . . tense. He did not bite. He just wanted to calmly explain.