Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias's penalty two minutes from time secured Argentina a 26-24 victory over South Africa in Salta and a two-place climb to seventh in the latest World Rugby Rankings.
Argentina looked in danger of letting a 10-point lead slip for a second weekend running against the Springboks, but regrouped to claim a third win in Rugby Championship history to the delight of the Estadio Padre Ernesto Martearena crowd.
Los Pumas climb above France and Scotland in the rankings and close to within three tenths of Ireland in sixth, having not secured the winning margin of more than 15 points that would have lifted them another place.
South Africa remain third despite the defeat, although are now more than four rating points adrift of England and less than a point above Australia, whose rating is unchanged despite a 29-9 loss to New Zealand.
World champions New Zealand produced another dominant display to beat Australia for the second weekend running, the Wallabies now having lost six matches in a row, three against the All Blacks and three in the June series with England.
Tries from Israel Dagg (2), Julian Savea and Sam Cane helped the All Blacks to win the Bledisloe Cup for a 14th year in succession and go into the bye weekend in The Rugby Championship with a five point lead in the standings from South Africa and Argentina.
Away from The Rugby Championship, the other nation to climb in the World Rugby Rankings was Kenya following their 34-10 victory over Hong Kong in a one-off test match in Nairobi on Saturday.
Kenya have climbed two places to a new high of 22nd after tries from Joseph Kang'ethe, Tonny Owuor, Nato Simiyu and Darwin Mukidza.
Hong Kong, whose only try came late on from debutant Hugo Stiles, fall three places to 27th as a result of the defeat.
There was one other international match this weekend, although this had no impact on the rankings as neither are full member unions of World Rugby and therefore not ranked. Ecuador edged a tight battle with Guatemala 26-25 in their repechage to determine who took the final place in the Sudamerica Rugby B Championship in October.