Microsoft, one of the official sponsors of this years Lions tour to Australia, kindly gave the Scottish Rugby Blog a seat at The HSBC Legends Of The Lions Finale Lunch Friday 3 May in London and are now giving readers the chance to win some tech goodies matching those given to members of the touring party.
The finale lunch was a great occasion, raising money for the Lions Charitable Trust, and the event saw excellent speeches from Scott and Derek Quinnell, Andy Irvine, Matt Dawson and Andy Nicol’s ever popular tale of his six minutes of Lions rugby across two tours.
Warren Gatland also spoke of his excitement ahead of the trip and explained some of his squad decisions. Most intriguingly, Gatland highlighted Craig Joubert’s appointment as referee for the second test next weekend as one of his reasons for choosing Sam Warburton as captain.
The Lions coach said Joubert is a known admirer of the flanker both as a player and in the way he conducts himself, and also revealed Warburton is highly regarded amongst the refereeing fraternity in general.
The room was sprinkled with Lions legends. In attendance were Sir Ian McGeechan, Gareth Edwards, Richard Hill, John Dawes, Gerald Davies and more.
And now for the tech: the whole squad will be kitted out with a tablet, wireless keyboard and accessories and a Windows phone so they can stay in touch with their families and friends back here in the UK while trying to bag a first Lions series win since 1997. You can see a brief video over on the Lions site of some of Rugby’s “greatest” minds getting to grips with the cutting edge technology before they left.
One of our favourites was the Wedge Mobile Keyboard, a nifty little bluetooth enabled keyboard that allows you to turn your tablet into a netbook with the cover doubling up as a stand for the screen. It’s partner is the Wedge Touch Mouse, which is literally a tiny wedge of slick black and silvery stuff that works as a kind of touch pad/mouse, again via bluetooth.
With the tour well under way there are sure to be one or two feeling a bit homesick, especially those stuck in the midweek team so they may well make use of the communication accessories we got a look at. One thing that would come in handy keeping in touch would be the Skype-suitable LifeChat LX-6000 headset – with two comfortable earpieces and a built in mic arm, and accompanying that was a standalone Skype certified HD webcam LifeCam Studio.
“We are proud to be joining The British & Irish Lions family, bringing together Microsoft’s passion for technology with the best in rugby. This is just the start of our journey towards success in Australia and we have ambitious plans to embed technology throughout the team bringing this Tour closer to the fans than ever before.” said Scott Dodds, general manager, marketing and operations, Microsoft.
In the build-up to the Tour, Microsoft reviewed all aspects of how technology can help the team in 2013. From revolutionary training analysis in the cloud, or using Windows 8 devices to make life on Tour truly seamless with life at home to Skype enhanced supporter sessions with the players; this will be the first British & Irish Lions Tour with technology built in.
Competition
Thanks to Microsoft, we are giving you the chance to win a prize pack to kit out your tablet, laptop or desktop PC with the latest accessories so you can stay completely in touch this summer whether you’re at home or on the move. We’ve got a Wedge Touch + Wedge Keyboard to give away, and one LX6000 headset and HD webcam.
To enter the competition, you need to follow Microsoft on Facebook and Twitter at the addresses below (you can follow us too @scotrugbyblog if you like but you don’t have to!):
Step 1: Like on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MicrosoftPCAccessoriesUK
Step 2: Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MSAccessoriesUK.
Step 3: Answer the question – Which Scottish Rugby player was known as the “Mighty Mouse”?
Entries are now closed
Terms and Conditions:
- This giveaway is open to UK residents only.
- This giveaway is not open to employees of Microsoft, their family members, or anyone professionally connected with the giveaway.
- The giveaway will run from Friday 21st June 2013 00:01 BST until Friday 28th June 2013 at 00:01 BST.
- Any incorrect entries, or entries received or processed after the closing date will not be accepted.
- Only one entry is allowed per person.
- The winner will be picked up randomly and announced on the 29th of June 2013. Entries will be verified to have followed the conditions of entry above (steps 1,2 and 3).
- No cash or other alternative is available to the prizes.
- Any contact information held for giveaway purposes will be deleted following conclusion of the giveaway.
- If the winner cannot be contacted within 24 hours of the prize draw, Scottish Rugby Blog reserves the right to conduct another prize draw to determine a new winner.
