Argentina hangs on to beat Australia 28-26 in Rugby Championship match in Sydney

SYDNEY AP Argentina took advantage of selected early handling errors and indiscipline by the Wallabies for a - halftime lead and held on to beat Australia - on Saturday in a Rugby Championship match at a sold-out Sydney Football Stadium The Wallabies came into the match on a high after their spirited last-minute - win last week over Argentina in the north Queensland city of Townsville There was a flurry of early scoring but the bulk of it was to the visitors with the Pumas leading - after just minutes After Argentina took the lead in the fifth minute on a penalty goal by Santiago Carreras Joseph-Aukuso Sua ali i barged over to count a converted try two minutes later to give the home side a brief lead its only of the afternoon Argentina claimed the restart but after a knock-on the Wallabies earned a scrum free kick But captain Juli n Montoya leading the side in his th test attempted a charge down and scored a try for Argentina Carreras converted and kicked a penalty goal three minutes later and Argentina led - after just minutes Two more Carreras penalty goals he had four in the first half gave the Pumas their -point halftime lead Carreras stayed perfect early in the second half and kicked his fifth penalty goal in the th minute after the Wallabies were called for obstruction to extend Argentina s lead to - and beyond a two-try margin Carreras was on the board again minutes later to extend Argentina s lead to - and the Wallabies slowly starting seeing the match slip away Australia reduced the deficit with late tries but stout defense by the Pumas earned them their second win of the tournament Argentina is now - including a first-ever home win over the All Blacks It was so emotional in the last minutes noted Carreras who slotted all eight of his point-scoring kicks It was such an amazing battle to watch for the crowd I m really proud of the boys for this win Australia captain Harry Wilson explained the Wallabies made it really hard for ourselves discipline let us down badly We are normally a disciplined band Wilson added We have a lot of points in us but a lack of discipline made it hard for us The encouragement has been truly special and we re going to keep trying to earn it It really does lift us Australia coach Joe Schmidt added We ve got to be better in the aerial battle I thought we won the battle on the ground sometimes but didn t get a limited decisions that sometimes don t go your way Coming into Saturday s match Australia won two of its three tests in the Rugby Championship The Wallabies had an upset win over the World Cup champion Springboks at Ellis Park in Johannesburg and a narrow loss in Cape Town to open the tournament before last week s win All four teams in the tournament are idle next weekend When it resumes on Sept New Zealand will host Australia at Auckland s Eden Park and the Springboks play Argentina at Durban South Africa AP rugby https apnews com hub rugby Source