Michael Cheika reckons Australia's stunning Salta comeback is proof his blueprint for next year's Rugby World Cup will work - provided his players are mentally strong enough to pull it off.

For weeks the Wallabies have been re-writing the record books for all the wrong reasons.

Now, after Sunday's (AEDT) 45-34 win over Argentina, they'll be proud they did.

Their epic 24-point comeback after halftime was the greatest ever seen in tier one rugby, let alone Australia or the Rugby Championship.

It came after an atrocious opening stanza in which the shell-shocked tourists conceded their biggest score in history against Los Pumas to teeter on the brink of catastrophe.

A halftime bake from an angry Cheika seemed to do the trick - their problematic defence suddenly stiffened and their misfiring attack somehow clicked as they ran in five tries and gave agitated supporters a glimpse of what the Wallabies are capable of.

In the process, they also dodged what would have been their maiden Rugby Championship wooden spoon.

The lesson was clear - when they're switched on, Cheika's playbook is more than good enough.

When they're not, they struggle to compete.

"That'll be up to the individual .... the contrast they can see in their own performances individually and what was different between half one and half two," Cheika said.

"The clever guys, the smart guys, will learn from that and take that on board so that it makes them better rugby players and better representatives of Australia when they go out on the field.

"When the upstairs is working how it should be, you can overcome that adversity.

"We did it this time, we've got to be getting on the front foot with that," he said.

"We'll have situations that we have to overcome in the future but we've also got to not let ourselves get into those situations too."

Skipper Michael Hooper said it was a "confused" dressing room after the match - part ecstatic, part relieved, part puzzled about how they could produce such contrasting performances on the same night.

"It's just frustrating that - where is it minute one, minute 10?" Hooper pondered.

Australia has four matches left this season - the third Bledisloe Cup Test against New Zealand in Japan, then a tour of Wales, Italy and England.

After what should go down as a watershed result, the Wallabies cannot afford to take another backwards step between now and the World Cup, which is less than a year away.

"We must improve a lot on our match today so we can win that match (against New Zealand) and that's what we're going to try to do in Japan," Cheika said.

"Not try, don't say try. We will."