Pumas fullback Mallia cited after Springboks' Williams 11-second KO

Argentina fullback Juan Cruz Mallia has been cited after his high hit on scrum-half Grant Williams during Sunday's (AEST) defeat.

Mallia collected Williams high in the first 11 seconds of their 22-21 defeat in Johannesburg.

Williams later appeared on a touchline bench with the South African replacements to applause from the Ellis Park stadium crowd.

"Upon further review of the match footage, the Citing Commissioner deemed in his opinion the incident had met the Red Card threshold for foul play," SANZAAR said in a statement.

South Africa coach Jacques Nienaber confirmed Williams would be out of action for next week's clash in Argentina.

"Grant was out cold so I think there is definitely concussion. I don't know the extent of it, but he will probably be out for at least two weeks," Nienaber told a press conference.

Assuming South Africa take three scrum-halves to France for the September 8-October 28 global showpiece, 2019 World Cup winner Faf de Klerk is a certainty.

Williams is therefore competing with his Sharks teammate Jaden Hendrikse, Cobus Reinach and Herschel Jantjies for the other two places.

Hendrikse, Reinach and Jantjies were later included in a 26-man squad for a World Cup warm-up international against Argentina in Buenos Aires on August 5.

"It was not the nicest game, but we needed to grind it out with a yellow card in the last 10 minutes," said Nienaber, referring to the 73rd-minute sin-binning of centre Damian de Allende.

Por esta jugada ante a Grant Williams, Juan Cruz Mallía fue citado a declarar por el Comité de Revisión de Infracciones de SANZAAR.#PUMASxESPN pic.twitter.com/hrzcS9UNSe

— ScrumRugby (@ScrumESPN) July 31, 2023

"Our kicking game was definitely not as good as it could have been. Argentina handled the game between the two 10-metre lines very well. They wait for you to make mistakes."

South Africa spent most of the second half defending after leading 15-9 at half-time and Nienaber hailed the Springboks for preventing the Pumas scoring a try until the 75th minute. 

"Being put under pressure like this will probably happen in the World Cup. I was incredibly proud of the outstanding attitude in defence," said the coach.

"I think the World Cup is going to be incredibly close and you can easily become shell-shocked when the opposition has all the momentum."

The Ellis Park Test was the last as Springboks coach in South Africa for Nienaber, who is joining Irish outfit Leinster after the World Cup.