David Pocock and Israel Folau return for Australia

The coach said the initial plan was the same for Pocock, though the tireless back rower completed a full 80-minute shift after injuries to other forwards – including workaholic number six Scott Fardy, who has a painful hip injury but is also ready to back up against the All Blacks.

Once again, the Wallabies failed to allow a try against them and although their attack is very much hit and miss, their defence is in control.

If Richie McCaw plans to retire after the RWC final, he will have finished his career by testing himself against the best fetcher/harasser going around. It’s up to us to do something special.

“Every day you’re going to get improvements”. We know we’ve to improve. We’ll recover really well and get into all the reviews and previews and all the rest, and get into the week. It’s been really good for me as I’ve got to know him a bit better.

The pack provided good ball for Foley who anticipated Imhoff would drift in off his wing and launched the flawless pass for Adam Ashley-Cooper to dive over.

David Pocock has been such a presence at the Wallabies breakdowns, he’s made Michael Hooper sink into obscurity by comparison. “For everyone involved in Argentinian rugby, this is biggest week ever in the sport”. The decision might have been correct by the letter of the law, but it seemed so out of step with how the offence has been policed to date and very, very harsh from the English referee who failed to notice a similar tackle from Slipper later on.

The Pumas are the last opposition a side needs to be facing with a weakened front row and 20st hard man Ramiro Herrera will be grinding his teeth in anticipation at facing James Slipper at the first scrum – particularly with captain Agustin Creevy alongside him having passed a fitness test.

Australia faced controversy when they needed an erroneously given penalty to beat Scotland 35-34 at Twickenham.

Asked what they had learned about the Wallabies in their encounters, Foster said: “The lessons we’ve learned from Sydney and Eden Park I guess we’ve already applied to our game and put them into practice”.

Kurtley Beale and Ben McCalman – who stood in for Folau and Pocock in the quarter-final – revert to the bench in what is the Wallabies sixth appearance in the semi-finals in eight World Cups.

15 Joaquin Tuculet, 14 Santiago Cordero, 13 Marcelo Bosch, 12 Juan Martin Hernandez, 11 Juan Imhoff, 10 Nicolas Sanchez, 9 Martin Landajo, 8 Leonardo Senatore, 7 Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Ramiro Herrera, 2 Agustin Creevy (captain), 1 Marcos Ayerza.