Wallabies' flanker Michael Hooper runs through a tackle by Pumas halfback Nicolas Sanchez. Credit:AFP "It's a big confidence booster for the team. Sometimes you need games like that where things come off and things go your way. I'm very proud of the way the group went about their work this week at training and it's really pleasing to get a result on the scoreboard." Israel Folau scored the first of his three tries in the fourth minute before the Australian pack spent eight minutes locked in an epic scrummaging battle five metres out from their try line. The Argentines were awarded penalty after penalty resulting in Wallabies prop James Slipper being sin-binned, but Australia escaped without conceding any points after flanker Michael Hooper scooped up a loose ball and ran it clear. "We always knew the Argentinian scrum was going to be very good and we've had to work very hard during the week," Horwill said.

Prop Benn Robinson was strong off the bench for the Wallabies. Credit:AFP "It took a big effort and we got the rewards towards the end but it was a difficult period and I'm very proud of the way the boys held off there to come away with no points [against them]." Coach Ewen McKenzie praised his side's performance, which was not without errors but was the most complete effort to date under his coaching. McKenzie said the team had pared things back during the week and focused on how they wanted to play. "We went back to where we started really. We had our moments, we could have capitalised a few other times but in the end we just really played with purpose and some toughness in key moments," he said.

"We're happy with the win, from a tournament point of view we didn't get the outcomes we wanted along the way but we've learnt a lot [and] we experimented a bit. "In the end at this last game we've probably found more about ourselves along the way and been able to express ourselves the way we'd like to. We said at the start we'd like to play with the ball in hand and we did that better today. "We had to tough it out, there were tough moments, obviously in the scrum and other parts of the game. Argentina did some good things, they played with a bit of continuity as well [but] were able to play off their mistakes because they were chasing the score." The result was Australia's highest ever score against Argentina, although not the biggest winning margin. Horwill said the team needed to treat the victory as a "stepping stone" to bigger things.

"We've got the All Blacks in two weeks and then we head on a five week European tour so this hopefully is a stepping stone for things to come," he said.