'It affects the family': 'Canes coach talks about Savea's tough week

SPOTLIGHT: Hurricanes head coach Jason Holland says it has been a ‘tough week’ for Ardie Savea and his family as the reaction to his throat-slitting gesture has been intense.

Savea has been suspended for a week after making the gesture towards Melbourne Rebels scrumhalf Ryan Louwrens in a Super Rugby Pacific game last weekend

The All Blacks star, who had been shown a yellow card just before the incident, later apologised.

The loose forward said that, as a role model, he regretted the action that overshadowed his team's 39-33 win.

The star No 8 will miss the Hurricanes derby with rivals Blues.

Holland stood with Savea and reiterated that the All Black loose forward immediately realised his mistake once tempers cooled down.

"He’s pretty adamant that it’s something he definitely shouldn’t have done in the moment," Holland told media the day after Savea’s judicial hearing.

"He has accepted that straightaway pretty much when he was sitting on the bench there on the sin bin for 10 minutes that it was something he shouldn’t have done.

"We just have to get on with accepting that and get on with what comes next."

Holland said Savea is getting plenty of support amidst all the negativity directed towards him.

“It’s tough, isn’t it? Because it doesn’t just affect Ardie, it affects the family and everyone that’s close to him,” Holland said.

“Obviously hasn’t been easy. Like you talk around the one-week sanction, there’s obviously a bit more than that that goes on that comes out of this around the general public and around his family and those sorts of things.

“But he’s got a good group around him, good group of people, great family and they’ve rallied around him.

“I think he’s probably pretty relieved now that he can make people really clear that he’s apologised and start to get on with his life and his footy.”

Sources: AFP & @RugbyPass