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Mahe Drysdale, singles sculls Olympic champion - Source: Reuters
An Australian newspaper's take on the Olympics medal table. - Source: Supplied by Twitter, Jess Maher -
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Australians are still smarting over their disappointing Olympics medal tally, which has seen one television broadcaster delete New Zealand off its medal table.
In an attempt to save face over the lack of gold medals the team have won at the London Games, Aussies are now taking to saying "silver is the new gold".
It comes just days after official Australian Olympic broadcaster Channel 9 reportedly wiped New Zealand off its top 10 Olympic medal table on national television. The channel reportedly dropped the number 10 ranking, to only show the top nine countries with the most medals.
The move eliminated New Zealand from the rankings.
The Kiwi athletes gold medal tally is enough to put them above the Aussie's on the Olympic medal tally and the new low in trans-Tasman relations hasn't gone unnoticed in London.
BBC Radio 3 presenter Petroc Trelawny was among the many tweeters who posted about the story, including a link to the ONE News story about the medal table hijinx.
The Guardian newspaper is also running a story on the blunder on its website, quoting New Zealand supporters from Kiwi House - the base for Kiwi Olympic athletes and their supporters.
The story said New Zealanders are enjoying "the unusual experience of being ahead in Olympic medals over neighbours down under".
It quoted Hanah Huston, 24, saying: "Australia is like our bigger, uglier brother so if we beat them it's really good."
Another New Zealander celebrating in Kiwi House, Helen Shaw, is quoted as saying: "We love Australia, we definitely want them to do well. But, right now, we are still loving kicking their ass."
More salt has been added to the Aussies' wounds when it emerged that a single county in England has more medals than they do.
British media were reporting that if Yorkshire were a country in its own right, it would be riding high in the Olympic medal table.
The county is home to gold medal winners heptathlete Jessica Ennis and cyclist Ed Clancy.
A tweet by a Leeds-based sports journalist, claiming that Yorkshire would be 11th in the medal table - above Australia - has been retweeted more than 3,400 times.
Jonathan Buchan's tweet at the weekend: 'If #Yorkshire was a country it would currently be 11th in the medal table above the likes of Japan, South Africa and Australia! #teamgb."
And Channel 4 news reader Krishnan Guru-Murthy tweeted: "My Aussie relatives must be despondent. 1 gold. After 9 days. Matilda needs a hip replacement."
But the Australian's are rallying round their athletes, claiming there's nothing wrong with silver.
Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald Peter FitzSimons claimed "silver is the new gold".
Directly attacking his friends across the Tasman, he wrote: "Oh yes, I grant you, there are still countries - and here's a special cheerio to you Kiwis, sniff - who only want to talk about the number of flashy, trashy, gold medals they've won.
"But here at the London Olympics, in the very heart of "Cool Britannia", it is wonderful to see the fashionable breakthrough made by the Australian team, when it comes to proudly displaying the kind of medal that everyone now wants."
He claimed the Aussie team are "eschewing the outdated Versace look, and instead popularising among classy people the softer lustre of the Collette Dinnigan hallmark".
"And we're not doing it by halves, either, not by a long shot," he said, adding that with 12 silver medals it puts the country among "one of the three Silver Superpowers of these Games".
"Contemplate that, you Kiwis, with your three gold medals and your miserable lack of a single silver medal to bless yourselves with, and eat your hearts out," he said.
FitzSimons branded gold medals as "so grasping, so "look-at-me-look-at-me!", so & I don't know & cheap".
"Wearing silver marks you out as a solid, not flashy, sportsperson; a person who could have won gold if they'd been as egocentric, self-obsessed and - let's face it - prone to CHEATING, as the gold medallist, but upon mature consideration has decided against it," he said.
And other Australian's are joining in the chorus.
ABC Grandstand sports journalist DebbieSpillane tweeted: "Ok, if Roger Federer's a silver medalist, then that puts a bunch of Aussie achievements into perspective for me!"
Dave Gaukroger, on Twitter posted a photograph of Australian track athlete Peter Norman, who won silver in the 200 metres at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, with the message: "Perhaps some of the people having a sook about not winning gold should remember how powerful an Aussie Silver can be."
The runner was banned from the sport after showing solidarity on the Olympics podium to gold and bronze medallists Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who famously gave a Black Power salute, by wearing a badge to support their cause.
However, one Australian newspaper has been accused of putting New Zealand in the same box as Australia in its medal table.
In what appears to be an attempt to boost the look of Australia's medal count, the top 10 medal table printed in the unnamed newspaper, states 'Aus Zealand' at number nine.
It gives a combined total of 27 medals - including four gold, 12 silver and 11 bronze.
Jess Maher tweeted: "The medal tally as found in Aussie newspapers... Apparently Australia and New Zealand are now combined??!"