Habana limps into Mendoza

The post-match focus was on Bismarck du Plessis, but he is not South Africa's only casualty from the first round of the Rugby Championship.

Unlike Du Plessis, who will undergo surgery to repair knee ligament damage, veteran wing Bryan Habana travelled with the team to Mendoza for the return match.

Both were injured in South Africa's 27-6 win over Argentina at Newlands at the weekend - the Springbok hooker inside the first five minutes (a knee injury that will rule him out for the rest of the year) and Habana limping off 10 minutes from full-time.

However, Habana arrived in Argentina on crutches and his left foot in a moon boot.

Springbok captain Jean de Villiers said the wing will be assessed in the next few days, before a call is made on his availability for the second Test.

However, he gave no details of the injury.

"Obviously Bizzy [Bismarck du Plessis] is out," De Villiers told the media upon the team's arrival in Argentina, adding: "We've welcomed Craig Burden into the team.

"Obviously there are a couple of other niggles which we'll have to assess in the next few days."

The Bok skipper dismissed travel as a factor this week.

"I don't think travel will be an issue at all, seeing as both teams came from the same place [Newlands], going to the same place [Mendoza] - it will be a level playing field in regards to that."

The Bok skipper described his team's performance in the first Test as "average" and said they still have a lot to work on.

"We will look to keep on improving in the Rugby Championship.

"Our set phases were pretty good - scrums, line-outs and kick-offs went really well.

"At stages we also put some good phases together and defensively we didn't allow them to score a try," he said, when asked about the positives from the game.