Rather, the Wallabies were trying to stifle their laughter as an Argentinian tenor given the task of singing the Australian anthem before their showdown with the Pumas in Mendoza on the weekend completely mangled his rendition, replacing the time-honoured words with complete gibberish.

Marcelo Zelada's ignorance of the lyrics of Advance Australia Fair is now being heralded among the best botched musical sporting performances of all time. And there are certainly plenty to choose from.

In his version, Zelada introduces such choice phrases as "Or wealth and toils and wealth for soils" and what sounds like "Worth goyz wingart arn sea". His bizarre mauling left several of the players and the Australian commentators chuckling.

"Well, that's an interesting take on Advance Australia Fair,"  Fox Sports rugby commentator Greg Clark said.

"My favourite ever," another commentator quipped.

 

Last year, Australia's men's hockey team The Kookaburras initially looked on in confusion as officials mistakenly played the New Zealand national anthem prior to a match in Holland.

Some players began grinning while others shook their heads as they realised what was happening.

"Our apologies on behalf of the organisation, this was the New Zealand anthem. We will re-start," the stadium announcer eventually said.

At the Super Bowl in 2011, US pop star Christina Aguilera botched the lyrics of The Star-Spangled Banner.

Instead of singing "O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming," Aguilera repeated an earlier line of the song, though she messed up that one, too. She sang "What so proudly we watched at the twilight's last gleaming," but in that line, it is supposed to be "hailed", not "watched".

In 1990, US actress Roseanne Barr shouted her way through the Star-Spangled Banner before a San Diego Padres baseball game. She was booed as she completed the anthem off-key, then grabbed her crotch and spat on the pitcher's mound.

Last year, Canadian jazz singer Alexis Normand stood to sing the US national anthem before an international ice hockey tournament, but forgot the lyrics about 15 seconds into the song.

Thousands of Canadians in the crowd eventually came to her rescue and finished the song with her.

Back in Argentina, the Wallabies' laughter was short lived as they trudged off the park with a 21-17 loss to Argentina to end the competition on a sour note.

Fairfax Media