A quick tap and sharp footwork from Nawaqanitawase put Australia deep on attack. With the Pumas’ defence stretched, Quade Cooper found Kerevi lurking out wide and the centre’s inside ball sent Len Ikitau diving over in the corner in the fourth minute.
But Ikitau injured his shoulder while scoring and soon after was sent to hospital for scans. Having no outside backs on the bench forced the Wallabies into a reshuffle with Carter Gordon’s introduction at inside centre breaking up the potent Cooper-Kerevi midfield partnership.
The entire complexion of the match changed — the Wallabies’ attack was clunky and disjointed while Cooper and Gordon, two playmakers, looked vulnerable defensively beside each other.
The Wallabies found themselves hanging on at halftime following the sin-binning of lock Richie Arnold for deliberately slowing the ball down. The Pumas fought their way back through a converted try to centre Jeronimo de la Fuente and levelled the score at 10-10 by halftime.
Five minutes into the second half, the visitors took the lead for the first time when hooker and captain Julian Montoya forced his way over before Wallabies halfback Nic White darted across to level the scores again.
When winger Mateo Carreras beat a tired Dave Porecki to score out wide in the 68th, Argentina led 27-17. But a Kerevi try, then Nawaqanitawase’s solo effort gave the home side a seemingly match-winning lead with time almost up.
But the Wallabies conceded an off-the-ball penalty and Argentina set up an attacking lineout. The Pumas hammered the tryline, trying to burrow under the Wallabies until Gonzalez went over the top of the defenders and scored.
“We need to enjoy this win because we worked really hard over the week and bounced back from a tough game (against New Zealand),” Montoya said.
“We want to be fighting for every ball, every metre and every contact. We know the game is not going to be perfect, there are going to be bad moments. We need to enjoy this win...”
Australia captain James Slipper, replacing injured regular skipper Michael Hooper, said the penalty count — 14-10 against the home side — cost them.
“Ill-discipline really hurt us tonight again,” Slipper said. “Yellow card, and a couple of penalties put us at the wrong end of the field. You can’t win test matches playing that sort of rugby.
“There’s quite a few of us who have to look at those individual penalties and rectify it quickly. Performances like that, we won’t go far at the World Cup.
