Sam Burgess without his kids at brother Tom’s wedding

The children former NRL star Sam Burgess shares with ex-wife Phoebe were noticeably absent from his brother Tom’s Sydney wedding.

Hollywood heavyweight and Rabbitohs co-owner Russell Crowe wasn’t the only VIP missing from Tom and Tahlia Burgess’s harbourside wedding on Friday.

The children Sam Burgess shares with ex-wife Phoebe were also noticeably absent.

It is believed Burgess had hoped to take Poppy and Billy to his brother’s Watsons Bay nuptials to join their cousins.

The estranged couple have an agreement that Sam must be drug-free to see his children, after he was caught by police with cocaine in his system during a roadside test in Bowral last year.

Crowe played an integral role in Phoebe and Sam’s star-studded wedding in 2015 but some close to the actor say they don’t believe he was invited on this occasion.

Sam Burgess (far right) did not bring his two children to his brother Tom’s wedding. Picture: Matrix Media Group

The day before the wedding Phoebe Burgess shared a series of photos to social media showing Poppy and Billy swimming at her parents’ home in Bowral.

The Sunday Telegraph revealed last week that Phoebe contacted her local police station concerned the former NRL star had not provided hair follicle drug test ­results before picking up his children.

Phoebe called police at 8.30am two Sundays ago, claiming Burgess had not had the test and therefore she did not want him to pick up the children.

She called police again 40 minutes later, telling them Burgess had arrived at her Glenquarry property and that she wanted him to leave.

Friends of Burgess say he had willingly submitted to five of the tests but access to the testing centres had been difficult during the holidays.

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