The incident happened late in the first half when Savea, wearing the number eight shirt and captaining the side, was sin binned after a melee close to the Hurricanes line.

"We have two and four starting it and then eight escalates it more, then there's more push and shove," referee James Toleman explained on the broadcast microphone.

"You're then re-escalating that by grabbing somebody and pushing them to the ground," the referee told Savea as he produced the yellow card.

Savea made the slit throat gesture towards opponent Ryan Louwrens as he left the field.

His action prompted boos from spectators.

Louwrens' team-mate Reece Hodge complained about the gesture to the referee but no further action was taken.

"I can understand the fans are furious with the gesture that I made," Savea said in his post match interview for Stan Sport.

"It's just a heat of the moment kind of thing, it's footy, but I understand kids are watching us,

"We're in the heat of the moment and that's out of character for me, so I put my hand up first and apologise for that."

Savea had scored two tries and created another in a 39-33 victory but the result was overshadowed by the incident.

"We're trying to clean up the game, there's no excuse for me, I've got to be better," Savea admitted.

A disciplinary committee ruled that Savea should receive a one week ban and therefore miss Saturday’s match against the Auckland Blues.

Savea has won 70 caps in the back row for New Zealand in a test career which began in 2016.

"We need to be a bit careful too as sometimes we make those gestures during the haka," former All Black Sir John Kirwan told New Zealand channel Skysport  after Savea's gesture.

New Zealand's traditional pre-match Haka ritual had previously caused controversy when it was changed to a version known as Kapa O Pango, in which players appeared to make a throat slitting gesture.

The Haka routine was later modified to tone down the action.