KEY POINTS:
So, another frontrower has staggered into retirement with the rugby press office spirit unbroken, unlike more tangible objects such as the player's body parts.
A neck injury has forced Derren Witcombe to call it quits at 28 - before catastrophe strikes. A great bloke leaves on a high,
the Auckland rugby media release cried out in the names of the great and the good.
This is a day to celebrate because Witcombe is able to walk, yes really walk, away from playing rugby. The usual nerve damage and arthritis felt by old front rankers will seem like a fair swap.
Like many combatants from the coal face of the rugby scrum, Witcombe has had to announce that he wants to enjoy a full life. Witcombe is not alone. He is part of a rugby wreck.
This column, then, is intended as a vigorous defence of the IRB's new scrum laws, or more importantly the spirit of them.
Who knows if the new rules - that troublesome and cringe-inducing "crouch, touch, pause, engage" business - are on the mark. It will take time to discover if they reduce injuries, and their effects at different rugby grades.
Some experts believe they work. Others, including the just-retired Australian hooker Brendan Cannon, believe they increase dangers by forcing 800kg-plus of rugby beef to stew too long before crashing forward.
But the point is this. The IRB and all must keep searching, asking the questions, burning the flame. Because this is a crisis.
The "Witcombe Retires" story has made the sports front page now, but for how long? Maybe it should hog the headlines more than it will.
Where have I heard this line before, you thought, as news of Witcombe's departure came through?
Plenty of places, actually.
This year alone, four international hookers have retired because of neck/back injuries - Witcombe, Cannon, Scotland's Ocker Robbie Russell and England's Steve Thompson. In the cases of Witcombe, Russell and Cannon, the injuries stem from previous trauma suffered before the new laws were introduced this year.
Thompson was ultimately hurt in a tackle, but who would dare believe that scrum wear didn't play a part? You can add to the 2007 list Brumbies hooker David Palavi, who was told by doctors that his ability to look after his family was at risk.
To go back a decade or so, you find All Black frontrowers Olo Brown, Mark Allen and Richard Loe giving the game away because of scrum-related injuries.
Since then, the memory and a bit of file-checking easily produce a horrific list of casualties around the globe - Ben Darwin, Bill Young, Fletcher Dyson, Anthony Mathison, Toks van der Linde, Trevor Woodman, Chris Loader and Jason Barrell to name leading cases.
The files are littered with words like life-threatening, breathing problems, and the sort of sentiments that Witcombe expressed about being able to run in the park with the children he hopes to have.
These cases represent more than the tip of an iceberg, but by no means all of it. The files are filled with other names, including the junior England prop Mark Hampson who, because of a "freak accident", is paralysed from the neck down and breathes with a ventilator.
Freakish? Not really, given the word means unusual or abnormal.
Whether it be from scrum injuries suffered in training, warm-up games or major World Cup clashes, famous and almost-famous front rowers have dropped like the proverbial flies.
What is frightening is that in some cases - including those of Northlander Barrell and Aussie Darwin - the scrum disasters could have been fatal.
There are a couple of inescapable conclusions looking at the list, one being that there is a particular problem in Australia where attention to front-row detail and development has slipped badly.
Australia has always survived on a thin line, but it has still put out terrific front rows over the years. Not any more, and the professional era may have stretched its resources beyond the safety limit.
The numbers say Australia's out-matched front rankers are in greater danger than most. Maybe a player like Cannon suffered because of deficiencies in others.
One hates to tempt fate here, but you really do fear for Matt Dunning at times, and not only because of his penchant for inviting all and sundry to his hotel room in the wee hours.
By contrast, French and South African props aren't prominent among the fallen. Then again, a queue of props from England - a country noted for its scrum power and technique - have had problems.
The other inescapable conclusion is this: For all the moaning and groaning about the current rules, the associated suggestion that there are more stoppages this season and the implication that it was better in the old days, it is inconceivable that the IRB could allow the former system of scrum engagement to be reinstated.
The issue here isn't stoppages to the game. It's about stoppages to life and limb.
Rugby needs to continue searching for answers and they don't lie in the past. Maybe, in the end, the game will be forced to use a totally passive engagement rather than the high-risk hit at scrums. Inevitable you would have to believe, if unthinkable right now to rugby diehards.
This evolution will lead to a rugby revolution perhaps, as front-row requirements change. Some players will also get to enjoy playing the game they love a little longer.
Until then, and even beyond, Witcombe will not be the last front ranker who bows to the inevitable. The scrum hit is the first danger point but the equally dangerous collapse is another scary problem under rugby's current MO.
I need some help here, to avoid being unduly alarmist. But in the gigantic mismatch that makes up much of rugby's World Cup, you fear that a tragedy is only a twist of fate away.
The real tragedy is that such events have already occurred, many times, in other levels of the game.
