Well, if gambling was always as productive as Loffreda's supposed throw of the dice with Hernandez, we'd all be addicted to it. El Mago (the wizard), as the player is now being called in his native land, has been the player of the 2007 World Cup thus far and it will take something extraordinary over the next seven days from one of the 119 other players left in the competition to wrest it from his grasp. The 25-year-old from Buenos Aires has enthralled us with his seemingly effortless brilliance over the past five weeks. Attempting to sum up his whole repertoire of skills and put them down on paper is a tricky business. Like all the greats across all sports, Hernandez seems to have more time on the ball than everyone else around him.

Opportunities, gaps and half-gaps appear to make themselves clear to him seconds before they reveal themselves to anybody else. It would be fair to say the lad can kick the ball, pass it, run with it, catch it and tackle but perhaps it's the way he combines these skills that sets him apart from the rest. Against Ireland, to pluck just one example, he launched a garryowen from inside his own half, ran 30 yards after it and then somehow, in one movement, caught the ball and swerved past Geordan Murphy to offload to one of his teammates. Which brings us to probably the most apt description of all, from the mouth of Les Cusworth, Argentina's Director of Rugby. "He's like a mixture of several good players."

Hernandez hails from the Argentinean capital and while many gaps from his childhood remain unfilled as of now, the one thing we know about him is his pedigree. His uncle, Patricio Hernandez, was a professional footballer, an Argentine international who travelled as a squad player to the 1982 World Cup in Spain. Uncle Paddy didn't get a game during the tournament, principally because a certain Diego Armando Maradona played in the creative midfield role that Hernandez liked to occupy.

There's a nice little irony in the fact that his young nephew is now being called the Maradona of the oval ball game. The family's sporting genes don't just extend to the men.

Hernandez's older sister, Maria de la Paz, plays for "Las Leonas", Argentina's women's hockey time.

In the past two summer Olympic Games she's won both a bronze and silver medal and is regarded as one of the country's top players. But while Maria managed to reach the peak of her sporting career at home, her brother started collecting the air miles back in 2003. After making his debut for the Pumas in April 2003 against Paraguay . . . a 144-0 victory . . . Hernandez moved from Deportiva Francesa to Stade Francais before the start of the 2003/04 season. Playing primarily at fullback, his bold counter-attacking instincts instantly endeared him to the locals . . . the Paris middle and upper classes . . . who prefer more spice than grunt in their rugby.

No surprise, then, that he's become an integral part of the Stade Francais brand these past four seasons. The club's now infamous calendar . . .

where the players strip down to their smalls, flex their pecs and smile . . . is now effectively based around Hernandez. We've been reliably informed by a lovely lady from the Stade Francais press office that, of all their players, he's the one that men want to be and women want to be with. That little analogy works the other way around, too, apparently, with Hernandez now rivalling Freddie Michalak as French rugby's gay icon.

Some of the plaudits he's amassed on the aesthetic front couldn't possibly be repeated in a family publication like this but in terms of rugby, there's been a veritable queue this week of people wanting to talk about him. "His skills are something you only get once in a generation, " says Cusworth, who's had an eye on Hernandez since his teens. "I've worked with a few special players, and he's one of the most skilful. Among the England players, nobody had the same skill level. I played alongside Dusty Hare for 14 years at Leicester.

I thought Dusty could kick. But this boy? He's a complete natural."

Agustin Pichot, the now redundant poster boy of Stade Francais and Argentina, also speaks highly of his compatriot. "When you have a player like him in your side, it keeps the opposition guessing, " says the Pumas captain. "You cannot prepare fully against him because sometimes we don't even know what he will do next. He will be a big factor in the growth of Argentina rugby. We have reached a certain level now and we hope to go further still in this World Cup, but when us older guys are gone he will be the face of Argentina rugby abroad and, more importantly, at home. He is a player Argentina sports fans love. He is the future." Apparently, he's not a bad fella off the pitch either. "He has everything, " says Pichot, "but is very humble, never neglects the basics and knows the need to train hard and prepare correctly." Cusworth labels him a "very special person".

Leicester, under instruction no doubt from Loffreda, their coachelect, attempted to lure Hernandez to Welford Road over the course of the summer but Stade Francais weren't prepared to let him stroll away with a year still remaining on his contract. Word is that Max Guazzini, Stade's resourceful owner, told the English club that they could take the player away with them, over their shoulders if they liked, as long as they handed over a transfer fee first, a figure believed to be in and around the 300,000 mark. Leicester did think long and hard about signing the cheque but they were worried about the precedent it might set. No rugby player has ever moved club for a fee and the Tigers didn't want to be the ones to break the dam.

It's a pity, because Hernandez is probably one of the few players out there who would be worth paying hard cash for but, no matter, he's still expected to move to Leicester once his contract expires with Stade next summer, although there'll surely be a few more clubs in the chasing pack come May. In the meantime, as he comes face to face with his biggest challenge yet in the shape of a gargantuan South African back-row tonight in Paris, we can all sit back and enjoy El Mago's latest magic act. If he can guide Argentina through to the World Cup final, it will be his best trick yet.