Argentina insist their first Rugby Championship win is just around the corner after letting slip a golden opportunity to beat the Wallabies on Saturday.

The Pumas led 19-6 with 20 minutes to play only for Australia to score 17 unanswered points and claim their second consecutive win, following another come-from-behind victory over South Africa in Perth the week before.

Argentina coach Santiago Phelan conceded the 23-19 loss was a match the Pumas should have won.

"We could have won this game," Phelan said. "It was a good opportunity that we missed.

"The start of the second half was very good for Argentina. There were some moments where we could have put some more points on... but we couldn't do it.

"We will try to keep improving ourselves to keep on playing with the same attitude that the team displayed."

Argentina play their last two Rugby Championship matches on home soil, against New Zealand in La Plata on September 29 and the Wallabies in Rosario on October 6.

Pumas captain Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe insisted Argentina would be ready for the challenge and that the team was "working very, very hard".

"This is the intensity we want to play with in every game," he said. "We'll use this week off to really recover, luckily now we don't have to travel so we can just stay home and use that to our advantage.

"We want to make Argentina a top team in the world and we're going to keep working, that's the only way to reach it."

Lobbe said the eighth-ranked Pumas were confident of winning one of their final two matches.

"We're convinced that it's going to come, that first win that we are really looking forward to," he said.