Savea sorry for throat-slitting gesture in Hurricanes win

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — All Blacks flanker Ardie Savea apologized for making a throat-slitting gesture toward an opponent after receiving a yellow card during a win for his Wellington-based Hurricanes team in Super Rugby Pacific on Friday.

Just before halftime of the Hurricanes' 39-33 victory against the Melbourne Rebels, Savea was sent to the sin-bin for his involvement in a brawl.

As he was walking off the field, Savea made the throat-slitting gesture to Melbourne halfback Ryan Louwrens, prompting Louwrens’ teammate Reece Hodge to complain to referee James Doleman, saying: “He’s threatening to kill him.”

No further action was taken against Savea, who apologized after the match.

“I can understand the fans are furious around the gesture that I made,” said Savea, who has represented New Zealand since 2016 and is one of the world's top back-row forwards. “It was a heat-of-the-moment kind of thing. That’s footy, but I understand, kids are watching us.

“That’s out of character for me so I put my hand up and I apologize for that ... I’ve got to be better.”

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.

Earlier Friday, in the other match in the so-called Super Round in Melbourne, where all six weekend matches will be played, Richie Mo'unga contributed 22 points as the Christchurch-based Crusaders — the defending champions — bounced back from a surprise first-round loss to beat the Highlanders 52-15.

The Crusaders were beaten 31-10 on their home ground last weekend by the Hamilton-based Chiefs in the main upset of the tournament’s first round.

The Dunedin-based Highlanders began with a humbling 60-20 loss to the Auckland-based Blues but were the better team in the early stages against the Crusaders, who once again struggled to hold the ball for long periods. The Crusaders’ scrum back-pedaled and gave up three early scrums yet the Highlanders were still down 24-3 at halftime.

Part of that was down to the brilliance of Mo’unga, the Crusaders flyhalf who created his team’s second try from nothing. Former England flyhalf Freddie Burns tried to kick the ball wide and behind the Crusaders backline and Mo’unga was on the spot to ignite the counterattack.

Center David Havili also was instrumental in the Crusaders’ first-half turnaround with some strong carries in midfield. Havili and Mo’unga combined to put the match beyond doubt with tries in the first seven minutes of the second half.

Mo’unga scored almost from the kickoff, running onto a lobbed infield pass from Havili to charge through the Highlanders defense. And Havili scored himself soon afterwards to make the lead formidable at 38-3.

“It was brilliant to play some footy,” Mo’unga said. “The Chiefs played a lot of footy last week and we wanted to come out and impose ourselves against the Highlanders.

“I was pretty disappointed in myself as the driver last week. I didn’t get us in the right areas of the field so today is very satisfying.”

The Crusaders lineout was a weapon and they scored two tries from lineout drives through prop Joe Moody and hooker Codie Taylor.

The Highlanders had the consolation at least of scoring the last two tries of the match, a late double to Josh Timu, and the knowledge that they've played both of last year’s finalists in the first two rounds.

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