Former All Black John Kirwan believes Ardie Savea's apology for this throat-slitting gesture is as far as the incident should go.
The Hurricanes captain will learn his fate at a judiciary hearing on Tuesday, after being cited for the action in his team's Super Rugby Pacific win over Melbourne Rebels.
The All Blacks No.8 was yellow-carded for 'escalating' a scuffle, before turning his attention towards Rebels halfback Ryan Louwrens, motioning a throat-slitting gesture.
SANZAAR has ruled that Savea's actions merited a red card and contravened Law 9.27 regarding good sportsmanship, but Kirwan believes Savea has more than paid the price for his actions, with his immediate apology post-match.
"Total mistake from Ardie, but he fronted up straight away and apologised," Kirwan said on Sky Sport's Breakdown. "It should not go to the judicial, I don't believe.
"We want to send a strong message to the kids, but that was it, 'I'm sorry, I made a mistake, I wasn't good enough and I need to get better'.
"That's what you want from your leaders. We need to be a little bit careful too, because sometimes we make those gestures when we do the haka as well.
"Did he make a mistake? Yes.
Do we want to see it in our game? No, but he apologised and did it really well."
Savea expressed his regret over the brain fade and apologised to the fans, and could be seen embracing Louwrens after the match.
Rugby commentator Tony Johnson echoes Kirwan's comments and believes Savea's outburst can be attributed to the heat of a very welcomed moment.
"We all know what a champion player he is, what a champion bloke he is and I very much doubt that he, as Reece Hodge suggested, was actually threatening to kill anyone," he said.
"The fact of the matter is that image was not a good look, it does not leave a lot of room for interpretation.
"It's going to help that he's apologised, the judiciary has been lenient. It wasn't a smart thing to do, it was in the heat of the moment.
"I've got to say too, I actually love the fact that things got feisty. When that sort of scrap erupted before halftime, I thought, 'this is great, they're firing up for this'."
Savea will front the SANZAAR Foul Play Review Committee at 8pm Wednesday.
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