Two days before that game, Chiefs prop Ben Afeaki, an amiable one-test All Black with a gentle off-field nature that always belied his rugged power on the rugby field, faced a room of reporters. He was there to tell them that he would be retiring from professional rugby, aged 27. Afeaki had been concussed in a match against the Crusaders in February 2014. A month later, having been declared symptom-free, he returned to training, only to suffer another blow. He has not taken the field since. He now never will.
In an interview with Radio Sport's D'arcy Waldegrave, subsequent to Afeaki's announcement, New Zealand Rugby's Neil Sorensen reiterated the organisation's commitment to good concussion management.
The first of the Highlanders' medical staff arrived on the field exactly 10 seconds after Hohneck had crumpled on to the dewy turf of AMI Stadium. At this point Hohneck made his first attempt to get up from the ground, but was quickly braced by team physiotherapist Adam Letts. Letts was then joined on the field by team doctor Greg MacLeod, an Otago University Alumnus with degrees in physical education, science, physiotherapy, and medicine and surgery. The game was stopped for almost three minutes while Hohneck was assessed on the field. During this time, replays of the impact were shown on the stadium's big screen. The near-capacity crowd can be heard gasping as the initial impact, and Hohneck's subsequent collapse, is shown in slow-motion.
The World Rugby player welfare module that deals with these incidents has a truly catchy name: Concussion Management for Elite Level Match Day Medical Staff. Included in this document is the Head Injury Assessment (HIA) Process. Included in that process are nine indicators for permanent removal from play following a head injury (often known, intentionally quaintly, as a 'head knock'). If a player exhibits any one of those nine indicators, he must be removed from the match. One indicator is a "suspected loss of consciousness", and one definition of that is "a player stays on the ground, without movement until first support arrives on scene".
Hohneck is a competitive man, abrasive and physical. Three minutes after the impact he got up and began to walk towards his team. Referee Glen Jackson and Dr MacLeod conferred, before Jackson signalled for the player to leave the field. Hohneck turned to go. Dr MacLeod pointed him in the right direction.
Hohneck sailed through his concussion test. He said as much after the game. So did the team doctor. He returned to the game with a shade under 10 minutes having elapsed. Jackson asked if he was okay, such was his surprise at Hohneck's return. Crusader Andy Ellis approached Jackson to express his amazement.
In September of 2013, World Rugby implemented a series of recommendations, one of which was that video evidence of "the mechanism responsible for the incident" was encouraged as a part of the doctor's toolkit for HIA. Dr MacLeod did not see the impact in real time -- he was at least 60m from the action. He did not see the replays on the big screen as he was assessing Hohneck, nor did he have access to video footage during the subsequent HIA process.
It is unlikely, had Dr MacLeod been able to see "the mechanism responsible for the incident", that Hohneck would have returned to the game. It is unlikely, if that video was available, that Hohneck would have needed to sail through any test at all.
Hohneck's reappearance on Saturday night was called "remarkable" at the time. It was remarkable. Remarkable that it came two days after his 27-year-old former teammate's concussion-enforced retirement.
If ever there was a week in which to draw the line in the sand on player safety, surely last week was it.
