Santiago Carreras landed 23 points with the boot to drive Argentina past Australia 28-26 Saturday as the resilient Pumas hung on to avenge a last-gasp defeat a week ago.

In a pressure-cooker Sydney atmosphere, the hosts rallied from 28-7 down with three late tries to set up a grandstand Rugby Championship finish before running out of time.

Julian Montoya, in his 112th Test, and 50th as skipper, dotted down for Argentina's only try with the nerveless Carreras nailing the conversion and seven penalties.

"I'm just grateful to play with this jersey," said Montoya. "This time we won, but I think we make it tough for ourselves sometimes.

"Australia is a great team and I'm really proud with the way that we fought. Still a lot of things to improve, but we need to enjoy winning as well."

Argentina fully deserved victory, with ill-discipline costing Australia.

The hosts conceded seven penalties in a sloppy first-half, and 14 overall, while giving away far too many turnovers, before the late tries ensured a tense finale.

Montoya's men came into the clash on the back of last weekend's gut-wrenching after-the-siren defeat in Townsville where they squandered a 14-point half-time advantage to crash 28-24.

After some late nervy moments, they held on this time at the Sydney Football Stadium to dent the Wallabies chances of claiming a first southern hemisphere title in a decade.

Both sides have now won two and lost two, but Argentina will take heart from a rare win on the road, having previously lost five of the last six away, including three on the trot.

- 'Hard for ourselves' -

The Wallabies must now regroup ahead of back-to-back Tests against New Zealand, in Auckland and Perth, while the Pumas face a daunting double-header against world champions South Africa.

"We made it really, really hard for ourselves today," said Australia captain Harry Wilson.

"Lack of discipline there really hurt us. But credit to the boys for getting back into the game.

"We felt that if we could just hold on to the ball, we had so many points in us," he added.

Both sides came out swinging in front of a sellout crowd with two tries in the opening seven minutes.

Gloucester fly-half Carreras nailed a penalty to put Argentina ahead, but Australia responded immediately with the sheer power of Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii carrying him over for a converted try.

But minutes later there was a horror moment for Australia fly-half Tane Edmed, making his starting debut, when his kick on the Wallabies 22 was charged down by Montoya, who collected and slid over the line.

Carreras added the extras then another penalty to put Argentina 13-7 ahead after a frantic first 15 minutes, with a yellow card for wing Max Jorgenson after a deliberate knock-on piling more pressure on the hosts.

With Australia committing too many errors, Carreras landed two more penalties as the Pumas marched to half-time in control with only good defence preventing the Wallabies trailing by more.

RTL

Argentina's Santiago Carreras scored 23 points off the boot against Australia in Sydney / © AFP

In Townsville, the Wallabies had been a different team in the second half, but they got off to a poor start with another sloppy play allowing Carreras to slot his fifth penalty.

Yet more lapses in concentration, this time from Billy Pollard and Wilson, saw Carreras bag his sixth and seventh of the day, but to Australia's relief he was then sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on.

In his absence, and roared on by the crowd, Australia scored two tries in two frantic minutes with Andrew Kellaway and Filipo Daugunu crossing to reduce the deficit to 28-19 with 14 minutes left.

It set-up a blockbuster finish, with Daugunu getting another in the corner as the Pumas tired to close the gap to 28-26 with a few seconds left on the clock.

But after going through several phases once the siren had sounded, Australia coughed up a final penalty enabling Argentina to kick to touch and celebrate victory.