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Hernandez out of Bok clash

Buenos Aires - Pumas flyhalf Juan Martin Hernandez will miss Saturday's Rugby Championship home match against South Africa with a torn leg muscle, the Argentine Rugby Union (UAR) said on Wednesday.

Hernandez, who kicked two penalties in Argentina's 27-6 defeat by the Springboks in their tournament debut last weekend, suffered the injury near the end of an intense training session in Buenos Aires on Tuesday.

Argentina, playing in the southern hemisphere's elite championship for the first time, host South Africa at the Malvinas Argentinas stadium in the Andean city of Mendoza in the west of the country.

The loss of the injury-plagued former Sharks flyhalf Hernandez is a blow to Pumas coach Santiago Phelan. He had named a team with just one change from the opening match at Newlands in Cape Town, bringing in Martin Rodriguez at fullback in place of Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino.

Phelan will announce a replacement for Hernandez after Thursday's training run in Mendoza.

Nicolas Sanchez is a reserve flyhalf but Phelan my opt to reshuffle his back line with the more experienced Santiago Fernandez standing in for Hernandez.

Teams:

Argentina:

15 Martin Rodriguez, 14 Gonzalo Camacho, 13 Marcelo Bosch, 12 Santiago Fernandez, 11 Horacio Agulla, 10 TBA, 9 Nicolas Vergallo, 8 Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, 7 Alvaro Galindo, 6 Julio Farias Cabello, 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Manuel Carizza, 3 Juan Figallo, 2 Eusebio Guinazu, 1 Rodrigo Roncero

Substitutes (from): Marcos Ayerza, Martin Bustos Moyano, Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino, Juan Imhoff, Martin Landajo, Tomas Leonardi, Juan Pablo Orlandi, Bruno Postiglioni, Nicolas Sanchez, Leonardo Senatore, Tomas Vallejos

South Africa:

15 Zane Kirchner; 14 Bryan Habana, 13 Jean de Villiers (captain), 12 Francois Steyn, 11 Lwazi Mvovo, 10 Morne Steyn, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Willem Alberts, 7 Jacques Potgieter, 6 Marcell Coetzee, 5 Andries Bekker, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Adriaan Strauss), 1 Tendai Mtawarira

Substitutes: 16 Tiaan Liebenberg, 17 Pat Cilliers, 18 Flip van der Merwe, 19 Keegan Daniel, 20 Ruan Pienaar, 21 Patrick Lambie, 22 JJ Engelbrecht

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