Phipps said the side's 28-10 submission to the Springboks highlighted how much work needed to be done over the next few days, but said a full-time pep talk from captain Michael Hooper had them primed for a response against the Pumas in Mendoza this week.

"It's pretty disappointing, the boys aren't happy about it, but [Hooper] just said in front of the group that it's important that we don't walk around kicking stones," he said. "It's important we individually analyse the game and then have those micro chats between groups ...

"[But] we're not going to dwell on it. We've got a lot of work to do, I'm the first one to say that, but it's not devastating. We've got another game ahead of us and we can get on the front foot there and hopefully put on a good performance like they did last year."

It would be fool's gold to fly to Argentina expecting another seven-try statement will materialise on the Pumas' home turf next week. The Wallabies 54-17 rout in Rosario was a badly needed tonic for a dire early season under Ewen McKenzie last year, but it was not a typical result on the ground in Argentina.

After a coaching change and two close losses to South Africa and Australia in this year's competition, the Pumas will be hungrier than ever for that elusive first victory in the Rugby Championship. The Wallabies will spend Monday in the air and train once in Buenos Aires before making their way west to Mendoza.

There will be ample time to consider where it all went wrong in Cape Town.  "It was disappointing because there was a lot of good work out there and you have a time lapse that 10 or 15 minutes and they put three tries on you, that's what good teams are going to do," Phipps said.

"I never thought there was a crack there [in defence], our boys were working pretty hard there, they just moved us around pretty well in that last 10 or 15 and they found some space. Once you're on the back foot against those boys, you know you're going to be struggling."

When the Springboks had their tails up, the Wallabies were pinned in defence, unable to produce a turnover or any other game-changing moments.  "You give them the ball and they'll keep running at you, notching up those phases," Phipps said.

"That's when our boys are getting up and down off the deck working hard ... we have to work on ways to hold the ball ourselves and not give it back to them. We want to be in the psyche that if they have the ball, we want to get it back in three phases."

Instead the opposite would occur. In one maddening moment in which the Wallabies managed to get the turn over inside their own 22 metre line, a knock-on handed it straight back to South Africa, who scored. "That's a killer, especially for our bigger boys as well," Phipps said. "They see that and get pretty frustrated at some of those options."