Australia fought back from a half-time deficit to claim a bonus-point win over Argentina in the opening round of the Rugby Championship in Mendoza on Saturday.
The Wallabies trailed 19-10 at the break but recovered in the second half to claim a 41-26 victory and shatter the Pumas’ hopes of a first win over Australia in four years.
Australia were rocked on the eve of the game when captain Michael Hooper pulled out to protect his mental wellbeing.
Veteran flanker Hooper flew home from Mendoza after telling teammates he lacked the necessary “mindset” to play for his country, let alone lead them, in Saturday’s Test.
Prop James Slipper took over as captain while Fraser McReight was promoted to replace Hooper at openside flanker.
“I am really happy with how we finished,” said Australia coach Dave Rennie after the match. It’s a start but I am really happy with the character, we had a couple of late changes and losing a key guy within the game,” he said in reference to an injury suffered by Quade Cooper.
“That’s the thing about this group, there’s a lot of character and courage and they stood up.”
Argentina lost every match in last season’s Rugby Championship and hadn’t beaten Australia since 2018. However, buoyed by a recent home series win over Scotland, they were ahead inside five minutes.
Santiago Carreras, in at fly-half in place of talisman Nicolas Sanchez, found Pablo Matera with a well-judged pass and the flanker scored the opening try with Emiliano Boffelli kicking the extras.
Quade Cooper cut the deficit almost immediately with a penalty before Boffelli hit back with a Pumas penalty. The winger added another three points as the Pumas stretched to 13-3 ahead inside just 15 minutes.
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However, the Wallabies grabbed their first try when winger Jordan Petaia scored after the ball was worked wide from a maul. Cooper kicked the conversion for 13-10 before Boffelli popped over his third penalty of the game.
Argentina forwards continued to dominate and Boffelli’s deadly accuracy with the boot resulted in another successful penalty for a 19-10 lead at the interval.
The influential Cooper’s night came to a premature end when the flyhalf appeared to suffer and Achilles tendon injury and was replaced by Reece Hodge inside the first five minutes of the second period.
Moments later, the Wallabies were back in the game when McReight barrelled over the line from the back of a rolling maul. Hodge kicked the conversion for 19-17 with 3o minutes remaining.
The Pumas hit back five minutes later when flanker Juan Martin Gonzalez went over in the corner after the ball had been moved from inside his own half. Boffelli again was on target with the conversion for a 26-17 lead.
In a dizzying spell of play, the Wallabies were awarded a penalty try with Argentina lock Matias Alemanno sin-binned. With 65 minutes on the clock, Hodge then hit a long range penalty as Australia went in front for the first time at 27-26.
Hooker Folau Fainga’a piled on the misery for the weary Pumas by peeling off the back of a maul to score and stretch the lead to 34-26, before Boffelli failed with the boot for the first time in the match.
Centre Len Ikitau then made sure of the bonus point when he scored Australia’s fourth try in the last minute.
The two sides meet again next week in San Juan.
© Agence France-Presse
Photo: Daniel Jayo/Getty Images
