We haven't given away anything for a while, so it's probably about time we did.

The person who can come up with the best caption for this picture of Adam Thomson jumping on Mike Delany in London by next Wednesday will get my copy of this book and some coffee to go with it, so you can tell the stories to guests while you drink coffee after dinner, as the stories were intended to be told. Or just drink the coffee yourself while you read it. Off you go now!

It took some time and the integration of two email systems that really didn't want to talk to each other but we finally have winners in our competition.

Considering the huge prizes we were giving away I was expecting more than three entries, but three is what we got.

In third place with a comendable effort at the Vatican is Sea Monkey Madness

In first equal (because I couldn't decide) are Richard Irvine and Richard Maxwell

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The judges liked Richard Irvine's subtle Office Space reference and Richard Maxwell's commitment to the photo.

All three entries will recieve prizes (because that only seems fair) so email us with your postal details.

We decided that we were perhaps a little too biased when deciding the winner of last week's competition (I was going to disregard anyone who didn't mention Richie McCaw).

So instead we passed all of the entries to one of New Zealand's award-winning sports journalists and let him decide (his name remains a secret because he doesn't want people to know he's associated with us in any way).

And so the winner of a copy of the Rugby Book of Lists and a six pack of Epic is: Geff! Drop us a line and we'll get the prize out to ya.

Tomorrow I'll put up the rules for this week's competition and it's gonna be a doozy.

Congratulations to Joanna who won last week's book.

Week 2: This week in order to win a copy of the New Zealand Book of Rugby Lists (thanks to Random House) and some Epic beer (available at all good merchants) we would like you to tell us your top five current players who deserve to go into the rugby hall of fame.

Last week comedy won through, but this week we want serious discussion and clear reasons. Get to it.

Hi readers,

We have been given three copies of the New Zealand Book of Rugby Lists to give away by Random House.

It's one of those incredibly interesting books filled with rugby trivia that you'd kill to have stashed at your local pub quiz. For example:

The Heaviest All Black pack ever played against Portugal at the World Cup:

• Sione Lauki - 115kg
• Chris Masoe - 106kg
• Ali Williams - 112kg
• Chris Jack - 115kg
• Jerry Collins - 107kg
• Greg Somerville - 115kg
• Andrew Hore - 111kg
• Neemia Tialata - 127kg
• Total - 908kg

It's also jam packed full of history and quotes, like this one from an anonymous fax sent to the team in 1995:

Remember that rugby is a team game; all 14 of you make sure you pass the ball to Jonah.

All of your friends will be incredibly impressed with your rugby knowledge after a few reads of this book. So how can you win one (and few bottles of Epic as well)?

We'll be giving away one book each week over the next three weeks, on Monday we'll tell you what you need to do and then on Friday we'll tell you who won.

Week 1: Given that this a book of lists, we want you to tell us your top five players you love to see play against the All Blacks. Write your answers in the comments, and we'll pick a winner at the end of the week.

Well it's here and not a day too soon. I personally tried these rules out last night and I can tell you that they are definitely worth enforcing, though maybe with beer not rum.

The three options are sip (a small drink for common events), drink (a mouthful for rare events) and vessel (finish your drink for OMGThatNeverHappens events). Reader submitted rules are marked with an asterisk.

• Every time a New Zealander is shown doing the haka - Drink*
• Every time a current medal winner/world record holder is mentioned - Sip*
• Every time a previous medal winner/world record holder is mentioned - Drink*
• An athlete is over 30 - Sip
• An athlete is over 40 - Drink
• An athlete is competing in their third consecutive games - Drink
• An athlete is competing in their fourth consecutive games - Vessel
• Slow motion high-def footage - Sip*
• Athlete gets a personal best - Sip
• Athlete breaks an obscure record - Drink*
• Drug cheats mentioned - Drink
• Athlete is a convicted drug cheat returning
  to international competition to win a medal or deny a team spot to
  some poor bastard who slogged his life away without the
  benefit of bull hormones pumping through his/her veins - Vessel*
• SPECIAL RULE: Margin of victory drink - at the completion of a race the players must drink for the same amount of time that was the margin of victory between first and second. For victories that are less than one second replace with a Drink.
• SPECIAL RULE: Medal Drink - If the team you support wins a medal, Sip for a Bronze, Drink for a Silver, Vessel for a Gold.*

• If the current world champ of a sport rests on his laurels and gets absolutely smoked (i.e. doesn't make the finals) - Drink*
• Mahe Drysdale is mentioned - Sip*
• Mahe Drysdale is mentioned but it's not during rowing footage - Drink
• Mahe Drysdale is mentioned and footage is shown of him vomiting - Vessel (in empathy of his pain)
• The winner of an event has a cry when they finish - Sip*
• The winner of an event has a cry on the podium - Drink*
• The winner of an event runs into the crowd and hugs their mum/dad/coach after winning - Vessel *



• ­The commentator says an athlete is "laying into their work" - Drink*
• Weather is mentioned - Sip
• Sporting or national cliche is mentioned - Sip*
• An inane question is asked of an athlete straight after an event is finished - Sip*
• The camera angle has you wondering where the camera is - Drink*
• During an event you have to Wikipedia the rules - Drink*
• During an event you suspect the commentators are reading the rules from Wikipedia - Drink
• The camera does a slo-mo down the body of some under-dressed athlete - Drink*
• The camera is showing the crowd or an inconsequential athlete while something exciting is happening elsewhere - Drink

The winner of our competition is Seamonkey Madness (send us an email with your details and we'll get the pack out to you)

You may have heard that there is something called the "Olympics" coming up, well the Dropkicks are totally prepared.

This week's cast will take place over a few Epics (as always) while we watch the opening ceremony. But what Olympics drinking session would be complete without drinking games?

So here's where things get interesting for you:

• Come up with an Olympic Drinking Game rule
• Write it down in the comments below
• If it is judged to be the best, you will WIN a Dropkicks prize pack!* (previous winners** will tell you it's totally worth winning)
• The winner will be announced during the podcast as we implement the rule.

And if you'd like to join us for a beer or two while we salute the Olympic spirit, we'll tell you where we'll be tomorrow on the blog.

*may contain alcohol, so you've got to be old enough
**previous winners you are allowed to enter this as well.

The IRB has launched the annual Rugby Photograph of the Year competition. The winner gets a trip for two to the Dubai Rugby Sevens at
the end of November!

The competition, which aims to capture the spirit of Rugby, is now in its third year and is open to both professional and amateur photographers. The judges will be looking for a stand out picture that depicts Rugby’s unique blend of qualities, including team work, camaraderie, fellowship and skill and fair play.

Photographs can be submitted from all levels of the Game, including local club Rugby and the full Test arena.

To enter the competition photographers must email a jpeg of no less than 300 dpi of their chosen photograph to dominic.rumbles@irb.com or send a 15” x 12” print to Dominic Rumbles, Communications Manager, International Rugby Board, Huguenot House, 35-38 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, by no later than August 8 2008.

The photo shown here is last year's winner called "Commitment" by Andrew Orchard

The Dropkicks are up for an AWARD!

Admittedly it is from our sibling site, the Wellingtonista, but that doesn't matter!

We are nominated in the Best Dub-Dub-Dubber (Web-Writing-Wellingtonian) category. When the voting opens we will put the link up here and your job is to vote your old pals the Dropkicks into the winning position.

Choice!

Today (or very early tomorrow morning) is your last chance to enter the Dropkicks fantastic competition! The prize list is here but you should also know that more stuff will be jammed into it.

Also the runner-up will receive a signed photo of the Dropkicks, an Adidas pack aaaaaand a copy of John Kirwan's Rugby World (full of big colour photos, Oooooo).

To enter you'll need to email the Dropkicks (dropkicks[at]dropkicks[dot]co[dot]nz) and answer the question from the podcast. See that's the catch you have to listen to at least one podcast (or at least the end of one). But it is SO worth it.

UPDATE: if you've won stuff off us before you can enter again