Israel Folau scores a hat-trick as Wallabies thrash Pumas Wallabies thrash Pumas in Argentina Wallabies finish their Rugby Championship campaign in third spot after defeating the Pumas 54-17 at Rosario. PT1M33S http://www.smh.com.au/action/externalEmbeddedPlayer?id=d-2v1so 620 349 October 6, 2013 - 3:15PM ROSARIO, Argentina: Wallabies captain James Horwill said his side's seven-try demolition of Argentina was a major confidence booster heading into the third Bledisloe Test in Dunedin in a fortnight. The Wallabies resuscitated their flagging season and avoided the Rugby Championship wooden spoon with a defiant 54-17 effort against the Pumas in Rosario on Sunday. A battered Horwill, who was heavily iced on his right shoulder, said it was good to see the side's hard work pay off. Israel Folau scored the first hat-trick by a Wallaby since Adam Ashley-Cooper against Russia in the World Cup. Time Team Score Argentina versus Australia View Match Statistics Players Bosch (38min), Landajo (49min) Tries Folau (3min, 37min, 42min), Ashley-Cooper (33min), Tomane (65min), Robinson (75min), Foley (79min) Sanchez 2/2 (100%) Conversions Cooper 1/2 (50%), Lealiifano 2/3 (66%), Foley 2/2 (100%) Sanchez 1/1 (100%) Penalty goals Cooper 1/1 (100%), Lealiifano 2/2 (100%) Drop goals A lot of work's gone into getting to where we have and we're very happy to have put in a complete performance like that one. It's a big confidence booster for the team. Sometimes you need games like that where things come off and things go your way. I'm very proud of the way the group went about their work this week at training and it's really pleasing to get a result on the scoreboard. Israel Folau scored the first of his three tries in the fourth minute before the Australian pack spent eight minutes locked in an epic scrummaging battle five metres out from their try line. Wallabies' flanker Michael Hooper runs through a tackle by Pumas halfback Nicolas Sanchez. The Argentines were awarded penalty after penalty resulting in Wallabies prop James Slipper being sin-binned, but Australia escaped without conceding any points after flanker Michael Hooper scooped up a loose ball and ran it clear. "We always knew the Argentinian scrum was going to be very good and we've had to work very hard during the week," Horwill said. It took a big effort and we got the rewards towards the end but it was a difficult period and I'm very proud of the way the boys held off there to come away with no points [against them]. Prop Benn Robinson was strong off the bench for the Wallabies. Coach Ewen McKenzie praised his side's performance, which was not without errors but was the most complete effort to date under his coaching. McKenzie said the team had pared things back during the week and focused on how they wanted to play. We went back to where we started really. We had our moments, we could have capitalised a few other times but in the end we just really played with purpose and some toughness in key moments," he said. We're happy with the win, from a tournament point of view we didn't get the outcomes we wanted along the way but we've learnt a lot [and] we experimented a bit. In the end at this last game we've probably found more about ourselves along the way and been able to express ourselves the way we'd like to. We said at the start we'd like to play with the ball in hand and we did that better today. We had to tough it out, there were tough moments, obviously in the scrum and other parts of the game. Argentina did some good things, they played with a bit of continuity as well [but] were able to play off their mistakes because they were chasing the score. The result was Australia's highest ever score against Argentina, although not the biggest winning margin. Horwill said the team needed to treat the victory as a "stepping stone" to bigger things. "We've got the All Blacks in two weeks and then we head on a five week European tour so this hopefully is a stepping stone for things to come," he said. AUSTRALIA 54 (Israel Folau 3, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Bernard Foley, Benn Robinson, Joseph Tomane tries Foley 2, Christian Leali'ifano 2, Quade Cooper cons Leali'ifano 2, Cooper pens) bt ARGENTINA 17 (Marcelo Bosch, Martin Landajo tries Nicolas Sanchez 2 cons pen) at Estadio Gigante de Arroyito. Referee: Wayne Barnes. Poll: Will the Wallabies defeat the All Blacks in Dunedin? Total votes: 1919. Poll closes in 14 days.