Hurricanes star Ardie Savea cited over throat-slitting incident

Ardie Savea made a throat-slitting gesture towards a Melbourne Rebels halfback on Friday.
Photo: Screenshot / Sky Sport

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.

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”.

Home fans in the crowd at AAMI Stadium made their disappointment with Savea clear both at the time and following the match, while social media erupted with a host of reaction.

Ardie Savea has just done a very, very silly thing.

Shown a yellow card just before half time half time, as he leaves the field he chats with a Rebels player and draws a line across his throat.

Absolutely no place for that in the game. Wonderful player. But no.#REBvHUR

— Andy McGeady (@andymcgeady) March 3, 2023

Not a good look from Ardie Savea. Great player but gesture was uncalled for. Wrong and deserves to be condemned.
Players are role models for kids out there and he should apologise. Simply wrong. Period.

— Brenden Nel (@BrendenNel) March 3, 2023

Carry on? Surely that’s a red to Ardie Savea.

As Reece Hodge just said, “He’s threatened to kill him.”

No excuse.

— Christy Doran (@ChristypDoran) March 3, 2023

That Ardie Savea thing looks a bit like a section of the Haka to me.

Nothing more.

— Paul Williams (@thepaulwilliams) March 3, 2023

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.”

However, there’s no doubt Sanzaar will take a close look at what happened, with a request to face a disciplinary panel highly likely.

While many on social media were outraged by Savea’s actions, others were quick to point out just how much this is out of character for a player well-known for his off-field service to the rugby community.

Wallabies first-five and former Rebels player Matt To’omua was one of the first to back Savea.

“Ardie Savea gave a heartfelt apology after the match. He has been a great role model to kids for a long time and I think he deserves our understanding. Maybe we use this to show the importance of owning up to mistakes sincerely apologising?”

Before his yellow card, Savea scored two early tries and set up another.

Richard Hardwick scored two tries within seven minutes for Melbourne to trail by just a point but a 77th-minute try by Jordie Barrett sealed it for the Hurricanes.

My uso always leading. We are strong enough to lead & we are strong enough to understand we aren’t perfect.
Respect bro @ardiesavea https://t.co/t6m9I8nq1t

— Sonny Bill Williams (@SonnyBWilliams) March 3, 2023

* This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald