KEY POINTS:
Something happened at the bottom of a ruck in last weekend's game between Celtic brothers Ireland and Scotland that left Irish pivot Ronan O'Gara, quite literally, blue in the face.
By accident or design, the air the lungs supply to the brain was cut off by a not-so-gentle
application of force to the throat.
Under normal circumstances that mealy-mouthed explanation could be circumvented by saying he was choked, but that's far too big a challenge for the sporting lexicon.
There is potential for a lot of choking in the 2007 sporting calendar but nothing so trivial as the potential loss of a first-five's life.
No, the only choking you will be hearing about from here until after the netball world championships near the end of the year is the type that happens on the sporting field. All fed by our crass desire to pretend sport is somehow more than a game - that it's a battle, war, a matter of life and death.
Liverpool manager Bill Shankly, who began the greatest dynasty in English football, is thought to be the architect of such hyperbole when he uttered: "Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that." Never mind he was employing irony at the time.
So we will have people choking all over the world this year without a hand being laid on throat.
Of course, should they need reminding, the All Blacks' name will most closely be associated with that phenomenon should they fail to bring home the William Webb Ellis Trophy after 20 years of hurt.
They might have had excuses in 1991 (not good enough) and in 1995 (a shadowy figure named 'Suzie') but in '99 and '03 they failed badly under pressure.
Graham Henry has gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure there will be no repeat. He's empowered the players through leadership groups, given nearly everyone with two legs the opportunity for some game time with the All Blacks and, in this, World Cup year, he's been allowed to pull his players out of their Super 14 teams to build them into indestructible supermen (unfortunately it appears Mils Muliaina's metatarsal strengthening coach was derelict in his duties).
It's a funny thing, pressure. Far be it than question Henry's methods that have proved astonishingly successful so far, but the aura of excellence surrounding this All Blacks side now is such that losing at the back end of the World Cup, again, will be thrown into a much harsher light.
You can almost see the Northern Hemisphere scribes gleefully throwing their hands to their necks as another campaign comes undone. There will be no talk of being beaten by a better team, or of bad luck. The bold type in the next day's newspapers will instead scream "CHOKE".
But the first necks on the block, so to speak, are not those in black but those cricketers wearing the lurid green of South Africa.
Through a mixture of bad luck and bad cricket, the Proteas have mangled nearly every World Cup campaign since re-admittance.
The last two were pure theatre. In England in '99 Allan Donald and Lance Klusener found themselves at the same end of the pitch with the scores tied in their semifinal, gifting Australia the run out and the game.
If anything '03 was worse as Mark Boucher blocked out what became the last ball of the match as rain lashed down, when a single would have been enough to carry the Africans to a Duckworth-Lewis victory. The fact it happened at home was even worse.
"I guess the 'chokers' tag is something we have always struggled to get rid of," South African skipper Graeme Smith said as the World Cup kicked into gear. "It's something that this team finds quite amusing at times. We have players that have won hugely pressurised games over the last two to three years, a team which has performed, won tight situations, won from places where no one gave us a hope, so I would say in our environment that word is quite laughable.
"It's one for when you are out eating spare ribs, or something like that, you know?"
Now before Smith chokes on a rib, a corn chip, his own pride, or whatever, it would be a good time for him to have a chin-wag with Ronan O'Gara. The Irish superboot could tell him all about choking.
He'd probably tell him the experience isn't very amusing at all.