Hurricanes star Ardie Savea cited over throat-slitting incident

Hurricanes and All Blacks star Ardie Savea has been cited for his throat-slitting gesture in his side’s defeat of the Melbourne Rebels on Friday night.

The Hurricanes captain was yellow carded for escalating a scuffle but continued to argue and make the gesture as he left the field.

The Citing Commissioner has since deemed it a red card offense with a review to be held tomorrow to decide Savea’s fate.

Savea is alleged to have broken Law 9.27: “A player must not do anything that is against the spirit of good sportsmanship”.

The 39-33 victory has been overshadowed by the incident which saw the usually composed Savea make the gesture towards opposition halfback Ryan Louwrens.

Phil Gifford: Ardie Savea shouldn’t be punished for silly gesture

The fiery moment came after Savea was shown a yellow card for his part in a minor on-field scuffle between players and prompted Rebels captain Reece Hodge to complain to match referee James Doleman, that “he’s threatening to kill him”.

Savea himself took the first opportunity he could to apologise, admitting at fulltime to Sky TV that he had gone too far.

“I understand the fans are furious around the gesture that I made, it’s just a heat of the moment kind of thing, you know? It’s footy.

“But I understand, kids are watching us ... that’s out of character for me, so I put my hand up first and I apologise for that.”

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission