Defeat completed a nightmare week for the Wallabies with star back Kurtley Beale dropped from the squad after a row with an official during a flight from South Africa.

The match had no bearing on the final Championship standings with New Zealand finishing top on 22 points despite a 27-25 loss in South Africa earlier Saturday.

The Springboks came second with 19 points, Australia third with 11 and Argentina last for the third consecutive season with seven.

Argentina dominated first-half territory and possession yet came off at half-time 14-8 behind against opportunist opponents.

An intercept and break by Wallabies flanker and skipper Michael Hooper set up outside centre Tevita Kuridrani to go over for the first try after three minutes and fly-half Bernard Foley converted.

Recalled number eight Stuart Higginbotham claimed the second try for the visitors 10 minutes later, diving over beside the post after a line-out win.

Foley converted again and two forays into Argentine territory had yielded 14 points for the Wallabies at the 40,000-seat Estadio Malvinas Argentinas.

Pumas hooker and skipper Agustin Creevy opted for a scrum when presented with a kickable penalty opportunity and the move backfired as Australia survived.

With 20 minutes gone, Argentina had 71 percent territory and 55 percent possession, but no points on the scoreboard.

When the home side were awarded a more difficult penalty, they decided on a shot at goal only for the attempt by fly-half Nicolas Sanchez to fall short.

Creevy kept changing his mind over penalties and when a simple three-point chance arose, he took a scrum instead.

But this time there was an eventual reward as the Pumas threw the ball wide and number eight Leonardo Senatore dived over for a try Sanchez could not convert.

Sanchez atoned on the stroke of half-time with a penalty from in front of the posts to leave the Pumas six points adrift at the interval.

Referee Owens warned the repeatedly-infringing Australians just before the break that the next "wilful" offence would lead to a yellow card.

And the official kept his word, sending scrum-half Nick Phipps to the sin-bin four minutes into the second half with Sanchez kicking the resulting penalty.

Australia responded to their numerical disadvantage by making a rare incursion into Pumas territory and after the television match official ruled out a possible Kuridrani try, Foley slotted a penalty.

But a six-point advantage for Australia changed to a one-point deficit 13 minutes into the second period when right-wing Juan Imhoff went over in the corner and Sanchez converted.

Foley had two penalty chances – one far out and one close – to edge the Wallabies ahead again, but the first was well off target and the second came back off a post.

Replacement Argentine back Marcelo Bosch saw a long-range penalty veer wide and Hooper was harshly yellow carded for an unavoidable collision with Tuculet.

Sanchez then knocked over another penalty to steady Pumas nerves as the home side celebrated a famous win.