Digby Ioane try lifts Wallabies to victory over Pumas
Dean’s men bounce back from SA defeat to finish second in Championship
Australia wing Digby Ioane scored a superb mid-second half try to set up a 25-19 triumph over Argentina Saturday in a penalty-saturated final match of the Rugby Championship season.
A Wallabies team severely depleted by injuries were clinging to a three-point lead at a packed 40,000-seat Estadio Gigante de Arroyito when awarded a scrum in Los Pumas territory 15 minutes from time.
The ball came back swiftly to fly-half Kurtley Beale and Ioane drifted in from the left wing to take a pass, cut clean through the Argentine defence and dot down under the crossbar.
Makeshift full-back Mike Harris converted to give Australia a 22-12 lead that he increased eight minutes later with a penalty which lifted his personal contribution to 20 points.
Argentina set up a tense finish after Australian replacement scrum-half Brett Sheehan was sin binned with another substitute, wing Juan Imhoff, claiming a pushover try that outside centre Marcelo Bosch converted.
Beale missed a late penalty, offering Argentina a chance to snatch victory by running the ball the length of the pitch and scoring a converted try, but it was not to be as a knock-on quickly ended the move and the final whistle blew.
Success was particularly sweet for New Zealand-born Wallabies coach Robbie Deans and 111-cap skipper and lock Nathan Sharpe, who edged ahead of retired flank George Smith as the most capped Australian forward.