RS4 pressure plate causing gearbox damage

[Paul_RS4]

I have a 2007 model RS4 with 120 000 km on the clock. Last weekend while driving saw a lot of white smoke with no other warning signs or anything else suggesting a problem...I had the car towed to Audi dealership and after two days of trouble shooting the root cause seems to be that one of the teeth from the pressure plate broke off (failure method unknown at the moment) and this caused an impact hole to the gearbox leading to loss of gearbox oil. This came as quite a shock since the car is usually used for family-town driving with the odd spirited drive on a not too frequent basis.

Has anyone experienced something similar or have any thought on the root cause? Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks

Paul