Hurricanes captain Ardie Savea will miss this Saturday's Shop N Save Super Rugby Pacific match against the Blues after receiving a one-week suspension by SANZAAR for his throat-slitting gesture against the Melbourne Rebels.
The All Blacks star became involved in a scuffle with opposition players and was yellow-carded just before halftime at Melbourne, but then compounded his fate with an inappropriate action towards Rebels halfback Ryan Louwrens.
Although Savea was allowed back on the field after serving his 10-minute stand-down and he later apologised for his actions, the incident was deemed worthy of a red card by the SANZAAR foul play review committee and referred to the judiciary for further consideration.
The Judiciary Committee agreed Savea's actions only warranted a yellow card, and having already received an earlier one in the game, a decision on further punishment needed to be made.
Committee chairman Nigel Hampton KC said due to the nature of the player's persistent offending, with both the yellow card and the warning being issued for unsportsmanlike play, that an appropriate sanction for the player would be a suspension of one week.
The Hurricanes have also lost the services of prop Tevita Mafileo for three games after he was red-carded for a dangerous clean-out of Rebels No.8 Richard Hardwick.
Meanwhile, the Hurricanes will meet the Blues at 6.05pm Saturday.
In other matches, the Chiefs will take on the Highlanders at 6.05pm Friday, the Rebels will meet the Waratahs at 8.35pm Friday, the Swire Shipping Fijian Drua will face the Crusaders at 3.35pm Saturday, the Brumbies will play the Reds at 8.35pm Saturday and the Western Force will meet Moana Pasifika at 11pm Saturday.
[Source: newshub]
