Posting Blinds when consolidating tables ?

[Skibo1973]

Was playing in a tournament (No-limit) at our community club - started out with 8 tables / 9 players each table
At one point we got down to 18 players on 4 tables - we had 4 players at our table so we moved over to a table with 5 players - filling in the empty seats (the other two tables similarly)
We probably should have high carded for the button at that point - but anyway we didn't
The other table people just sat down, when the hand finished the button and blinds moved, and they started playing.
At our table, one player insisted that we (the arriving players) either had to each pay the big blind or wait until the big blind came around to us before we could play at the table.
Now I can understand if we were arriving at a ring game table, but not in the tournament situation of combining tables.
Tried to check Roberts Rules of Poker today - and I think he was wrong (the people running the tournament over ruled him - but none of us are experts)
Was he right ? He told us that he was an expert