Johannesburg — AUSTRALIA is seemingly home to countless mouth-breathers who really shouldn't be allowed to venture out in public unsupervised.

One such numbskull is Olympic swimming gold medallist Stephanie Rice, whose utterances the other day suggested that she might have the intelligence of a cucumber.

This dizzy chick rushed off and tweeted "Suck on that faggots!" after her native Australia beat the Springboks in a last-gasp 41-39 Tri-Nations triumph in Bloemnfontein at the weekend.

Rice took complete leave of her senses after fullback Kurtley Beale struck a dramatic long-range penalty with his only kick of the match to give Australia the win.

The excitement got the better of this numbskull and she inadvertently informed the world that she's homophobic.

Her bravado was ill-advised as, following condemnation led by gay ex-footballer Ian Roberts, the walls are closing in at a rapid pace.

Roberts called Rice an "idiot" and called for sponsors to abandon her.

Jaguar duly responded and the 22-year-old has lost her sponsorship deal - and the personal vehicle that she was presented with by the company at the beginning of the year.

The backlash did not end there as her comments also ended her involvement in a Sydney fashion event as a Jaguar ambassador scheduled for this week in kangaroo country.

"We have terminated our agreement with her," Jaguar spokesman Mark Eedle said.

"We will be taking the car that she's been using back. It's to do with how we want to associate our brand and unfortunately this ... is not an association we want to have going forward."

The swimmer - who won both individual medleys at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and was part of Australia's victorious 4x200m freestyle team - apparently makes about A800 000 in endorsements.

It now remains to be seen whether her other sponsors will also give her the old heave-ho.

We hope this serves as a lesson and Australians will think twice before allowing their seemingly natural instincts to latch onto anything about this country. Remember how those meddlesome Australians continually tried to get Fifa to strip SA of the rights to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup?

Some two-bit politician from New South Wales went as far as declaring that Australia was ready to step in as emergency hosts if SA was unable to deliver the World Cup.

Morris Iemma was unknown outside the murky waters of his backyard until he was presented with the opportunity to stick his nose into sporting matters - the opportunist realised he would get his rather oversized head recognised around the world.

So the mindless dunderhead organised a press briefing with bored local journalists in Australia and told them that New South Wales, which hosted the Olympic Games in 2000 in Sydney, had many people with the expertise required to help run a major event. Jah neh!

And who could forget how the Australian media supposedly leaked Caster Semenya's gender test results at the height of the global controversy? The list is endless, isn't it?

Of course Rice's spin doctors have spent the past few days trying to do damage control and she's even apologised for her comments on her website.

"I made a comment on Twitter on Saturday night in the excitement of the moment," she said. "I did not mean to cause offence and I apologise."

Yeah right, you kangaroo agent. That is exactly what you meant to do. You meant to gloat for all you were worth and kick the Boks when they were down.

But it's backfired spectacularly and this doofus would have us believe that she didn't mean it. What does she take us for? Serves her right.

Ntloko is sports editor.