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Is it right that one punch to the head means a red card in Scottish rugby?

was a hot-blooded, no-holds-barred and sometimes superbly abrasive game of rugby and, as I write this, it is fresh in my mind.

It was a superb advert for rugby. The players weren't thinking about the money, or the Magners League points, or the glory; they were thinking about winning.

At the end of the game, Edinburgh lock Scott MacLeod and Glasgow flanker Chris Fusaro threw a couple of punches. And then they threw some more.

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This week's question is - what's the best rugby pitch in the world? A hint - it's in the UK, there's lovely.

Let's not even mention summer rugby. Why are we playing, or trying to play, at this time of year? Madness.

The reason I ask about your favourite ground is that my neighbouring rugby club hosted a lunch (yes, games were off) and the two guests were and from the Scotland rugby team.

There were questions like: "Are either of you single as I have a 23-year-old daughter?...", and "is rugby as much fun as it used to be?". Which was possibly a hint that, back in the day, many parents would lock up their 23-year-old daughters to ensure they never met rugby players.

Yes, rugby is now an attractive professional proposition for potential fathers in law.

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Scrum time has become a problem for rugby union.

Both front rows are cheating, the referee doesn't know what is happening, the crowd doesn't know what is happening, but the spectators certainly know that they are getting bored.

Rugby can't keep the status quo: it has to change.

I was interviewing my hero last Friday. He is Francis Rossi, one of the Status Quo frontmen, and he had just finished his sound check before their concert in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

He sounded upbeat about life, but downbeat at the empty spaces he sees in front of him at gigs this year.

For the first time in his career Rossi, who has just bought into a whisky company, thinks that the recession is having an effect on ticket sales to Quo concerts.

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There hasn't been much about it in the media but I think I am right in saying that Fifa are about to announce the country lucky enough to host the .

That particular land will be informed after a doubt-free voting process, and although England might think they are in with a chance I've looked at the Russian bid and I like it, and I like Qatar's later one too.

Thank you Boris for my very own pipeline via the Persian Gulf. No, not the Boris who has thrown his toys out the pram in London.

When it comes to our sport, rugby, the next three World Cup venues have been decided but, after that, I'd like to see a Vladimir-like surprise.

Next autumn's World Cup will be in New Zealand, England (whaaat?) are hosts in 2015 in what must have been part of secret a plan for world domination, and Japan are next up in 2019.

Going by the long line of Beattie early deaths I shouldn't be too concerned about who gets in next, but I am.

And it mustn't be someone who has had it before.

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