The world champions Australia were pushed all the way by a combative Argentina before winning the second rugby international 32-25 at a freezing Bruce Stadium.
The Australians only led by one point (21-20) with 20 minutes left before winger Stirling Mortlock secured victory with a 68th-minute try out wide.
It was a far cry from the previous Saturday's record 53-6 romp in Brisbane, as the Pumas showcased their famed forward muscle to take the game to the Wallabies.
Australia scored all their three tries via the backs, while the dour Argentinians powered their two tries through pushover tries through the forwards.
It wasn't pretty, but highly effective as the Pumas, led by Roberto Grau and skipper Federico Mendez kept grinding away at the Australian forwards, who had to defend grimly in their own quarter for long periods in the second half.
Puma halfback Agustin Pichot said his team knew the Wallabies' weakness was up front. "We can't compete with their speed and strength, we need to play a tight game because we know they are not very strong up front and we did that," he said.
"We can be very pleased with what we did in these last three weeks."
The Australian forwards will be without flanker Matt Cockbain (medial ligaments) when they play South Africa in Melbourne in a fortnight.
Skipper John Eales said Saturday's Test was a truer indication of the Argentines -- who reached the quarter finals of last year's World Cup -- than last week's result, but acknowledged the Wallabies had to improve if they were to win their first Tri Nations title against the Springboks and New Zealand this year.
"Obviously, we didn't play our best and we know we have a long way to go before we can have a chance of doing well in the rest of the Test matches this year," Eales said.
Coach Rod Macqueen was disappointed by the scrappy performance but praised the Pumas' forwards who set up two tries from rolling mauls.
"I thought they'd actually done some excellent work on their driving mauls, they were very well structured and continually attacked our guys ... and we couldn't stop them," Macqueen said.
"They shut us down and we had a lot of trouble recouping the ball, we made a lot of mistakes but we also had a lot of penalties against us."
The Wallabies exploded to a 11-0 lead in as many minutes from the kickoff and looked set to reproduce the high-scoring form of the Brisbane Test, before the determined Pumas reeled them in.
Winger Joe Roff scored in the ninth minute after a dazzling interchange of passes across the backline, and Mortlock was in improved goal-kicking touch landing two of his first three kicks after bombing out with all five attempts in Brisbane.
But Argentina hit back after flyhalf Felipe Contepomi kicked a 13th-minute penalty and fullback Ignacio Corletto scored in the 16th minute after a lovely break by Diego Albanese.
The Argentine forwards took the play on and Corletto was shoved over to score.
Contepomi levelled the scores in the 19th-minute with his second penalty goal, before Mortlock nudged the home side ahead with another penalty in the 23rd minute.
Quicksilver fullback Chris Latham, who scored four tries the previous week, stepped through two tackles to score his seventh try in eight Tests and with Mortlock's conversion the Wallabies led 21-14 with seven minutes to halftime.
But Contepomi's fourth kick narrowed the margin to 21-17 at the interval.
The Pumas came out with renewed vigour in the second half and Contepomi narrowed the gap to one point (21-20) in the 53rd minute as Australia wrestled with the relentless Puma forwards.
The Australians, with replacement hooker Jeremy Paul, Eales and flanker David Wilson superb in defence, kept out the Argentinians before Mortlock skipped through Corletto's tackle to score out wide in the 68th-minute.
The Australians appeared safe at 29-20, but again the Pumas came back through another pushover try with skipper Mendez at the heart of it to score to trail 29-25 with eight minutes left.
The Australians strengthened their forwards with three replacements and carried play out of their territory before Mortlock kicked his fifth penalty and a seven-point lead to hold on to full time.
Mortlock finished with 22 points from a try, five penalties and a conversion from eight attempts.
The teams:
Australia: 1 Richard Harry, 2 Michael Foley, 3 Fletcher Dyson, 4 John Eales (c), 5 David Giffin, 6 Matt Cockbain, 7 David Wilson, 8 Jim Williams, 9 George Gregan, 10 Steve Larkham, 11 Stirling Mortlock, 12 Dan Herbert, 13 Rod Kafer, 14 Joe Roff, 15 Chris Latham
Reserves: Mark Connors, Jason Little, Jeremy Paul, Glenn Panoho, David Lyons
Unused: Elton Flatley, Sam Cordingley
Argentina: 1 Roberto Grau, 2 Federico Mendez, 3 Martin Scelzo, 4 Alejandro Allub, 5 Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe, 6 Rolando Martin, 7 Santiago Phelan, 8 Gonzalo Longo Elia, 9 Agustin Pichot, 10 Felipe Contepomi, 11 Diego Albanese, 12 Lisandro Arbizu (c), 13 Jose Orengo, 14 Octavio Bartolucci, 15 Ignacio Corleto
Reserves: German Llanes
Unused: Agustin Canalda, Jose Cilley, Fernando Diaz Alberdi, Martin Durand, Juan Fernandez Miranda, Jose Nunez Piossek
Attendance: 15072
Referee: Mchugh d.
Points Scorers:
Australia
Tries: Latham C.E. 1, Mortlock S.A. 1, Roff J.W.C. 1
Conv: Mortlock S.A. 1
Pen K.: Mortlock S.A. 5
Argentina
Tries: Corletto I. 1, Mendez F.E. 1
Pen K.: Contepomi F. 5
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