I was lucky he knew me - otherwise he'd have punched me on the jaw.

A whole gang of us went out for a Chinese meal last Saturday.

Everyone else thinks we hacks shove our snouts in the trough one day, then give the companies some friendly publicity in return the next.

It was a friend of a friend's birthday, so there lots of people we knew, and some who'd only just become our friends that night.

One new pal was a fanatical rugby fan from Down Under, who was very peeved to hear that I'd been at Twickenham that afternoon for the England v All Blacks game.

He got crosser when I told him I knew so little about rugby, I had to ask who was playing.

I enjoy watching the sport, but I'm not a rugby fan - and I certainly wouldn't have gone to Twickenham to cheer on the Kiwis if there hadn't been another reason.

The real motive was a freebie - I was there as the guest of Vodafone. The company had a box in the stands, served a jolly nice lunch (which I missed) and then plied us with drink afterwards.

Snouts in the trough

It's the type of thing that often gets journalists a bad name.

Genuine rugby fans get worked up about big companies block- booking tickets for their corporate chums.

If companies want to tell Breakfast what they're doing, I'd rather they send us an e-mail.

Everyone else thinks we hacks shove our snouts in the trough one day, then give the companies some friendly publicity in return the next.

Financial journalism is particularly prone to freebism.

Believe me, there are some serious - and serial - freeloaders out there. And the events the companies lay on for the press are becoming more lavish.

For one junket (which I refused to attend) a company flew journalists to a fancy restaurant - by helicopter. Limos were laid on for those who didn't want to fly.

London's trendiest night clubs are hired for swish parties - with a free bar thrown in. Free trips abroad are also common.

There are journalists who will turn up for each and every one of these things - and even the most junior of public relations advisers will have a list of their junket-loving regulars.

Maybe it does buy them some good publicity in some places. It certainly doesn't with us.

You'll be relieved to hear that the BBC has strict rules about freebies, and in our business office we decline many of the invitations that come our way.

Scrap the junkets

Personally, I don't know why companies bother.

In many cases, the events are a ridiculous waste of money, and the only people who benefit are journalists turned human-vacuum-cleaners, and PRs with a taste for champagne at someone else's expense.

If companies want to tell Breakfast what they're doing, I'd rather they send us an e-mail, or pop into the stock exchange studios some morning for a cup of coffee and a bacon roll.

Better still, if they've got big news, they should go in front of the camera live, so we'd all get to hear about it at the same time.

But not every company announcement is important enough for an interview - and not every company boss has spare time during the week to chat about the nickel and dime stuff. Which brings me back to my day at the rugby.

In pursuit of a story

I didn't go for the lunch - or even the match. I went because two of Vodafone's most senior executives were there.

They're the guys who call the shots at the company - and if I'm to explain what Vodafone is doing and why, they�re the guys I need to hear from. But they've got a company to run during the week - all around the world. So if they're going to talk to the media, it has to be at the weekend.

It's important we talk to the senior bosses first hand about their plans. Without that information, we can't give you a balanced report about our biggest companies.

And we're more likely to get good quality stuff if it's a relaxed affair, and there's enough time for the conversation to flow.

But just because it's comfortable, it doesn't mean we get too cosy with them.

As it happened, Vodafone reported its latest set of profit figures just days after the match.

And if you were watching on Tuesday, you'll know that we didn't hold back in describing its share price slump, the unhappiness of its small shareholders, and the problems with its new high tech phone services.

And we were among the first to point out that its profit figures weren't as pretty as they seemed - in fact, we highlighted the company's massive one-off costs that sent the business into the red.

So apologies to all the genuine rugby fans out there. But at least now I know a bit more about the game. Oh, and the Kiwis got thrashed.

Shame.