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NRL star Sam Burgess is cleared of allegations he drove on drugs as second sample comes back negative

  • Burgess stopped for roadside test in December
  • He allegedly tested positive for illicit substance
  • Further tests have since come back negative 

Sam Burgess has been cleared of allegations he was driving while under the influence of drugs.

The former NRL star was stopped in the Sydney suburb of Kingsford for a roadside drug test in December.

He was subsequently taken to a nearby police station when he allegedly tested positive for cocaine. 

Further tests, including a hair test, have since come back negative. 

Rabbitohs great Sam Burgess, 34, and new girlfriend Lucy Graham (pictured together).  Burgess has been cleared of allegations he was driving while under the influence of drugs

Rabbitohs great Sam Burgess, 34, and new girlfriend Lucy Graham (pictured together).  Burgess has been cleared of allegations he was driving while under the influence of drugs

At the time, Burgess denied he’d driven with any substance in his system.

‘After I was released from the police station, I immediately and voluntarily went to an independent, internationally accredited testing facility and undertook a urine test,’ he wrote in a statement.

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‘I deny any suggestion that I have drugs in my system. I have not consumed, obtained, or possessed any illicit drugs.’

Burgess is still facing a charge of driving while suspended – which he denies.

His solicitor Bryan Wrench told the Waverley Local Court on Wednesday there appeared to be a ‘vendetta’ against his client.

Mr Wrench referenced a transcript of a press conference by former NSW transport minister Andrew Constance.

Mr Constance was allegedly referring to Burgess when he said ‘we’re going to do everything to get him legally off the road’ at a 2021 press conference, the lawyer told the court.

Burgess earlier pleaded guilty to driving with cocaine in his system after highway patrol caught him behind the wheel of an unregistered BMW near Bowral in the Southern Highlands in February, 2021.

The former NRL star was stopped in the Sydney suburb of Kingsford for a roadside drug test in December

The former NRL star was stopped in the Sydney suburb of Kingsford for a roadside drug test in December

He was on his way to visit his two young children when he was pulled over.

Burgess avoided conviction but was placed on a nine-month good behaviour bond. 

source told Daily Mail Australia at the time Burgess’s registration had been suspended due to $1,200 in parking and traffic fines, which he paid on the spot. 

Burgess played 182 games for the Rabbitohs between 2010 and 2019 and won the Clive Churchill medal as man of the match in the club’s drought-breaking 2014 grand final win. 

Burgess will face court in February next year on the charge of driving while suspended. 

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