New Zealand 26 Argentina 16

A World Cup record crowd of 89,019 rocked and rolled its way along this roller coaster of a Wembley ride that so nearly ended with the second shock result of the tournament.

Hot on the heels of Japan's amazing victory over South Africa, Argentina for an hour looked as though they had the beating of the defending champions.

But New Zealand, boasting more than 1,000 Test caps between them, fought back from 16-12 down and tries from Aaron Smith and Sam Cane finally did the trick.

It was far from easy though, and the All Blacks thanked their lucky stars they had a replacement the size and calibre of Sonny Bill Williams to call upon.

His introduction proved to be a game changer as the former heavyweight boxer forced the hard yards previously missing and he provided the vital assist for Cane, another replacement, to end a five-man move and break the stubborn Argentina resistance.

Kiwi boss Steve Hansen, mindful that both skipper Richie McCaw and Conrad Smith were sin binned in a fretful first half, admitted his team had taken a sigh of relief after their opening group C match scare.

He said: "The scoreboard would reflect it was very, very hard. We gave away two yellow cards that were thoroughly warranted so played 20 minutes with 14 players. The yellow cards were pretty dumb - a moment of brain explosions. 

"But the game will do us a world of good and we will improve."

McCaw, booed by the Wembley masses for his deliberate trip on Puma back rower Jaun Martin Fernandez, held his hands up and said:

"I can't worry about being booed. I was in the sin bin so didn't have a lot of comeback after a dumb mistake. I can't worry: it is what it is. It's happened before and it won't help getting wound up about it.

"More importantly there was no doubt at half-time we needed more energy as we were getting beaten to the punch in contact areas. 

"The Pumas have improved one hell of a lot and if they keep playing like this will cause teams some distress. They are smart in the contact areas and today emphasised just how good they are."

Argentine skipper Agustin Creevy was disappointed his side faded in the closing phase.  

"We could not find a huge difference in the score. I wish we had and in the second half they were on top of us. They are the best in the world and play excellent rugby.

"There was a lot of defending going on and when we made mistakes we gave the ball back to them.

"When we were retrieving the ball we should have had greater possession and been more effective. But we lost the ball too many times and they were on constant attack."

A Nicolas Sanchez penalty just after half-time gave Argentina a four-point lead. But the power of Williams, and the guile and knowhow of man of the match Brodie Retallick, slowly hauled the World Cup favourites back into the game.

Smith came up trumps after 57 minutes, collecting the ball from the base of a breakdown and shuffling his way over.

Cane, who seconds earlier had dropped the ball with the line at his mercy, wrapped things up with 14 minutes to go, ending a sweet five-man move by taking Williams' pass and weaving his way to behind the posts.

That set up another easy conversion for dead-eye Dan Carter, whose personal haul was four penalties and two goals.

Argentina had everyone on their feet in 21st minute when with the opening try of the game as Guido Petti went over following great work by Creevy and star winger Juan Imhoff.

The Pumas edged their way upfield and good footwork caught New Zealand completely off guard.

At that point the All Blacks were on the rocks.

Decent place kicking and goal kicking from Sanchez held them in check and he finished with three penalties and a successful conversion.

Argentina couldn't quite finish the job - but what a thrilling ride they gave Wembley's near 90,000 rugby lovers.

New Zealand: 1-Tony Woodcock, 2-Dane Coles, 3-Owen Franks, 4-Brodie Retallick, 5-Sam Whitelock, 6-Jerome Kaino, 7-Richie McCaw (captain), 8-Kieran Read; 9-Aaron Smith, 10-Dan Carter, 11-Julian Savea, 12-Ma'a Nonu, 13-Conrad Smith, 14-Nehe Milner-Skudder, 15-Ben Smith

Replacements: 16 Kevin Mealamu, 17 Wyatt Crockett, 18 Charlie Faumuina, 19 Victor Vito, 20 Sam Cane, 21 T J Perenara, 22 Beauden Barrett, 23 Sonny Bill Williams.

Argentina: 1-Marcos Ayerza, 2-Agustin Creevy (captain), 3-Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 4-Guido Petti, 5-Tomas Lavanini, 6-Pablo Matera, 7-Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, 8-Leonardo Senatore; 9-Tomas Cubelli, 10-Nicolas Sanchez, 11-Juan Imhoff, 12-Juan Martin Hernandez, 13-Marcelo Bosch, 14-Santiago Cordero, 15-Joaquin Tuculet

Replacements: 16-Julian Montoya, 17-Lucas Noguera, 18-Ramiro Herrera, 19-Mariano Galarza, 20-Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 21-Martin Landajo, 22-Jeronimo De La Fuente, 23-Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino 

Scorers:

Argentina: Try: Petti. Pens: Sanchez 3. Goals: Sanchez 1.

New Zealand: Tries: Smith, Cane. Pens: Carter 4. Goals: Carter 2.