Former rugby player Paul Darren Mulvihill is appealing against his conviction and sentence for the stabbing murder of his former lover Rachelle Yeo.

In April 2014, Mulvihill was sentenced to 29 years' jail for the "vicious and sustained" attack on Ms Yeo on July 16, 2012 at her home at North Curl Curl on Sydney's northern beaches.

A non-parole period made him ineligible for release until February 5, 2035, when he will be 67.

The former NSW rugby union representative has maintained his innocence, claiming he stabbed his former girlfriend with a kitchen knife in self-defence.

Mulvihill's appeal will be mentioned in the Court of Criminal Appeal on May 12.

His appeal has faced lengthy delays due to issues in obtaining money to fund his legal fees.

During a five-week Supreme Court trial in February and March 2014, Mulvihill told the jury the two stab wounds inflicted upon Ms Yeo to her chest and neck were accidental, occurring during a violent struggle that ensued after Ms Yeo, 31, came at him with the knife.

But a Supreme Court jury rejected this claim, taking less than two hours to find him guilty of murder.

In sentencing Mulvihill, Justice Elizabeth Fullerton said that, on the day of the murder, Mulvihill lay in wait for Ms Yeo at her home, seething with anger at the end of their relationship more than four months earlier.

Mulvihill forced his way into the unit and stabbed Ms Yeo with a kitchen knife in an attack Crown prosecutor Maria Cinque described during the trial as "a bloodbath".

Neighbours heard the victim screaming for help, as well as Mulvihill telling them in a calm voice: "I've got it under control."

Justice Fullerton said the young woman would have experienced "extreme terror" during the attack, and "the indescribable torment when she realised that there were people trying to help her on the other side of the door".

After the murder, Mulvihill leapt from the balcony of the apartment and fled in a rental car, throwing the murder weapon into the bush and later disposing of his bloody jumper and shoes.

Justice Fullerton said Ms Yeo made it clear the affair, which had begun in 2010 while the pair worked at the Brisbane office of pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis, was over by the end of April 2012, when she moved to Sydney.

After their daughter's death, Roger and Kathy Yeo campaigned on the issue of domestic violence, urging people not to hesitate to help when someone is being abused.

Justice Fullerton found Mulvihill demonstrated a "lack of remorse or any insight into his offending".

She also rejected his claim that, before Ms Yeo's death, he had been a "man of good character".

During the sentencing hearings, it emerged that he had a history of threatening former female partners with violence, particularly after the relationships had ended.

Mulvihill's first wife, Celine Carroll, said he made death threats, including leaving a "goodbye and good luck" card with a bullet in it at her house after their 1991 divorce, following an 18-month marriage.

❏ Support is available by phoning National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service 1800 737 732; Men's Referral Service 1300 766 491.