Winning! Tigerblood! You can’t process me with a normal brain!

Confused?

Don’t worry this is still a rugby website even though I am quoting from a character in what was a very successful Hollywood sitcom.  If you still don’t know who or what, let me explain…

I pay close to R600 a month for satellite television on which, up and till recently, only watched two things; Sport and Two and a Half Men – a sitcom starring none other than Charlie Sheen the author or owner of the above words and phrases I quoted at the start of this column.

Most will think that R600 a month is a lot if you only watch about 5 of 60 odd channels, but then again I am after quality not quantity – and when it comes down to quality comedy, nothing came close to Two and a Half Men.

Still, what has this got to do with rugby?

Well, let me just say I pay R600 a month to watch only sport these days, and it’s not because the show was cancelled, but because the very thing that made the show is no longer there.

Sheen (the main character of the show) went on an ego trip a couple of months back, claiming he is the show and without him it will become an epic fail.  This of course infuriated the show’s producers who (thanks to their own egos) decided that they will have none of this and that they will kill off his character.  Now as much as I believe Sheen was indeed the main reason for the success of the show, the product they produced to the viewing audience suffered – all this because of nothing more than a couple of egos.

As much as Sheen was the main reason for the show’s success (the face of the show), he seemingly failed to realise that he is part of a bigger picture.  Hundreds of other individuals, some of whom are ranked higher than him in the success chain so-to-speak, all contribute to the overall success of the eventual product that is ‘sold’ to the public.

In short, the show needed Sheen and its producers to work together and sort out their differences like grown men.  You still have Two and a Half Men, but it’s just not the same with Sheen’s character replaced by some guy whose claim to fame seems to be marrying a granny and playing pranks on people.

Now I can imagine some of you are still asking how I can draw parallels with some Hollywood sitcom and rugby, hey?

Well there is one more thing that happened in the whole Sheen vs Two and a Half Men sideshow which I found very funny, and scarily ironic.  In his (Sheen) drug and alcohol fuelled tirade against the show’s producers Sheen coined the phrases I quoted above – one being ‘Tigerblood’ and that he, although fired, is ‘Winning’ (with the show’s producer’s obviously losing).  The producers however were not going to take that lying down.

In the debut show without Sheen, one of the (remaining) characters of the show booked himself into a top hotel on Sheen’s (now dead) character’s name (on the show they are brothers) – while lying in bed he ordered a lot of booze and hookers (something Sheen’s character was known for on the show) pretending to be Sheen, after which he sheepishly mentioned the phrase – ‘Winning’ – a cheap pot-shot at Sheen by the show’s producers and remaining cast.

The parallels or similarities?

Recent events in rugby reminded me of the above.  Situations or decisions being made where some folks are apparently ‘winning’, while others are ‘losing’.  Situations where egos get in the way or have a direct effect on the actual product being put forward to the viewing audience and supporters.

Most importantly, situations where you might be winning now, but in the long run, you will be the biggest loser and be made to look stupid by others taking cheap shots at you or kick you while you are down.

Now I don’t care too much for the individuals involved in either situation – the producers of the sitcom proved that although the product might be inferior to what they once had, no one person is bigger than the show.  Rugby too is bigger than individuals currently running the game and like the example above, will be proved in time.  It is just unfortunate that while this process peters out and one ego tries to cancel out the other, I have to sit with an inferior product presented to me.