My reaction is that the fundamental role of national coach needs to be re-examined in Scotland.

And, at the outset of this piece, I have to say in Andy Robinson's defence that some of that rubbish on Saturday wasn't his fault, it was players buying dummies, players going high into contact, players seemingly unable to break a defence and players missing kicks.

What's more, they will have learned to do this under other coaches, probably since they were five years old.

He was let down by his players on Scottish soil.

Greig Laidlaw finds progress tough against Tonga, who secured their first win over Scotland at Aberdeen on Saturday. Photo: Getty

Oh, there were stories that his schoolteacher attitude wound a few of them up, and he had a sharp tongue, but that's a good coach who has walked away.

You won't find players saying he was a bad coach. He was, in fact, very probably the best forwards coach in the business.

I'd like him to stay in Scottish rugby, coaching those detailed aspects of forward play, but that won't happen.

But here's the main thrust about this piece today: I don't see what's so complicated about coaching a national team.

For 40-odd weeks of the year your players are being fed, coached, trained and lectured by some of the best coaches in the world at English, Scottish and French clubs.

The players at your disposal dovetail with their club systems. They have their weight-training programmes, their defensive systems, their attack systems, their set-piece plays.

Surely the job of a national coach must be to give the players two attack systems and allow them to work out the rest themselves.

The role of a national coach is to organise and with the minimum of fuss. There should be no smoke and mirrors, no promises of some rugby nirvana, no interminable meetings and talking.

And no talk of winning the next World Cup with a golden generation of players. There is no such thing as rugby talent, there is only success brought on by working hard.

And there is no golden generation. Kiwi players, and for that matter Tongan players, work hard at their rugby in a school of hard knocks.

A national coach needs to hammer home set-piece practice, shape practice, a few calls, make sure fitness isn't lost, and get blasted in. Keep it simple.

The problem with that display on Saturday was that the players looked as though they hadn't even been introduced at times. The attacking shape broke down in its complexity and certainly rarely threatened.

And that will be nagging at Robinson. It's the same "same way" system as was used on the Southern Hemisphere tour and it had success there, but not here.

Why? Goodness knows.

Let's go through what we do know. New Zealand and South Africa are better teams than us, Samoa beat Wales and nearly beat France. Argentina beat Wales. South Africa and Australia beat England.

The power base of world rugby is shifting from nice boys in the Northern Hemisphere to a more brutal Southern Hemisphere game laden with skill and power that we aren't matching. Just how we approach that I don't know.

I just think the whole role of national coach, both in rugby and in football, needs to be re-examined, especially here in Scotland. The players are not the produce of the national coach. There is no long-term planning by the national coach. He takes players who are coached by someone else and moulds them into a national framework for a handful of games a year.

He doesn't need a caravan of helpers large enough to accompany Marco Polo.

In fact, the players don't need to be in camp all this time. I remember Judy Murray telling me that Andy Murray's Olympics success came from Ivan Lendl's advice that you prepare for a Wimbledon final or an Olympic final in the same way that you have prepared for every other game in your life.

Out went the special preparation, the bigger hotels, the bigger team, and he won a gold medal and the US Open.

You change precisely nothing.

I do understand the logic behind Edinburgh and Glasgow playing the Robinson way and I do get that element of the influence the national coach might have.

But only eight of the starting 15 against Tonga play for Edinburgh or Glasgow.

I hope the SRU pares down the national coaching set-up and gets a proven organiser.

Who would you like to see as Scotland coach?

Dan Carter stepped up to take a kick at goal at Murrayfield and sections of our Scottish crowd started booing. And there I was thinking: "I've advocated this in the past!".

Carter is one of the best players ever to have played rugby. He's a hard working ambassador for our game and I actually felt a little sick.

I actually felt a little ashamed at Scots doing that to someone who is an opponent and an ambassador for rugby.

It was wrong. There is no place for the denigration of opponents at any rugby stadium, especially Murrayfield. Do you agree?

South Africa were 16-12 winners in Dublin last weekend

Anyway, last weekend Scotland scored three tries so it wasn't all doom and gloom.

Interestingly the All Blacks played last year's Glasgow game plan, the same as the Saracens game plan, of three pods with the second rows and props in the middle of the pitch, the remaining forwards split either side, and Dan Carter chose which side to attack.

Fairly simple stuff but Scotland's defence didn't cope. The line-out was erratic and the brutality of the All Blacks, added to Carter's imperious kicking, were too much.

It must have been satisfying for Carter to slot the kicks with boos ringing in his ears.

Starting with the front row I thought Geoff Cross had one of his best games in a Scotland jersey and deserved to start again.

Richie Gray, who was excellent, could have finished the 80 minutes, Jim Hamilton's power was superb with one line-out adjustment sheer perfection but I'd like to see him give away no penalties in a game, and the finishing back row looked strong.

John Barclay now joins it and he won't let anyone down.

But we lack power in midfield and I guess the Springboks might target there.

Our pattern of play was to go the same way running off ten or nine and trying to get wide too. South Africa's pattern to date has been the Blue Bulls pattern of one out runners smashing their way up the pitch.

This game is going to be tough.

Getting back to the issue of getting on the back of kickers, rugby is different from other sports.

We shake hands after the game despite horrendous conflicts and impacts. We respect the referee. We sit side-by-side with opposition fans, we laugh with them, share food with them, and even have a drink with them.

It's about respect.

I don't want sporting etiquette to be eroded in my game. There are few things more impressive in rugby than the Munster crowd falling completely and absolutely silent as an opponent takes a kick.

And so, with that in mind, I really, really hope that this weekend fans at Murrayfield give the South African kicker the respect he deserves and cut out the boos. Though maybe, just maybe, you disagree...

Kamate, Kamate, Ka Ora Ka Ora. Yup, former Scotland scrum half Roy Laidlaw and I sat up very late in Northern New Zealand with a travelling troupe of Maori dancers and learned the Haka in 1983.

Oh, I can be cynical at times, but the All Black Haka is one of the great wonders of the world, as are the All Blacks.

The car's engine stopped purring as I turned the key; I looked around this strangely busy car park.

To my left was the Glasgow coach Bill Dickinson, trying to look anonymous under a cloth cap and slumped in his car, and at least three of my team mates were dotted around the car park in their cars.

Scotland face a huge task against the mighty All Blacks at Murrayfield

The All Blacks were a draw even for future opponents. We were beaten 9-3 or something similar and thought we should have won at a packed Hughenden.

But that was just the point. The All Blacks won.

And in a 105-year history of touring this country they have never been beaten by us.

And no wonder, frankly, if you take a look at the remarkable skills on display in the All Blacks "Pick Me" videos on Youtube: all that catching balls from behind looks tough.

And just looking through this New Zealand team to play Scotland it is remarkable in its strength.

Piri Weepu, for me, has always been one of the world's great scrum halves.

Richie McCaw has possibly been the world's top back row forward. Cory Jane and Israel Dagg are remarkable attack runners, Dan Carter would get in any team's first XV, and the All Blacks, frankly, hate losing.

This is the bit where you call me an eternal optimist.

I think Scotland can win this game; I have a worry as to whether big Richie Gray is fully fit, and our half backs might be light and targeted by New Zealand, as will the midfield.

Nevertheless, it's a balanced side and probably mighty hacked off at winning their big games away from home and not at Murrayfield.

You see, if you win in Australia, as Scotland did in the summer, it's not classified as a "real" result: It wasn't in the World Cup nor the Six Nations.

So, Andy Robinson's men have the chance to get away from the strife at Sale, the erratic form of Edinburgh and get back in the groove.

If Scotland do turn up, don't get overawed, and treat Murrayfield as a place to be confident, then this game can be won.

Bad weather or good, Scotland can beat the world's greatest rugby team. Now John, settle down, or you will have a heart attack.

Right you lot, how do you think the game will go?

Follow John Beattie on twitter on @bbcjohnbeattie

I will name the side I think will be facing the Haka and trying to beat them for the first time, and I want you to pick yours too.

Oh, and by the way, what a feeling that would be - beating the All Blacks would be so, so good.

The "Originals", the very first All Blacks, toured the UK in 1905 and according to one of the team members, Billy Wallace (surely a Scottish granny in there?), a newspaper described the team as if playing like "all backs" and with just one small typographical error later we had the All Blacks
.
One "L" of a difference.

But the older I get the more I look at things in terms of my life and although 1905 seems long, long ago it was actually just two of my lifespans. I'm now 54.

In 1905 the All Blacks travelled by boat, with "physical drill" at 7.45am, a morning session with backs and forwards in their own groups, and in the afternoon a variety of drills, including boxing, wrestling and something called the "Sandow developer" to build strength. On their way they dropped into Montevideo and Tenerife.

My kind of boat trip.

They won all their games bar one, against Wales, beating Scotland 12-7 and "West of Scotland" who were effectively Glasgow 22-0. the tallest player was George Nicholson who at 6 feet 3 and 13st 10 was the only player over six feet tall though, after all that training, newspaper reports marvelled a their "impressive physiques".

In 1905 when someone was injured teams continued with fourteen men, players could enter mauls from either side, and defenders were allowed to charge down a conversion from the moment the ball was placed on the ground. Not many conversions were successful unsurprisingly.

Interestingly "football" as it was known at the time was a big game in the USA but a report found that there had been 18 deaths and 149 serious injuries across the country in 1905 and that led to a rethink in the USA with forward passing seen as a means of making the game safer. And "American football" was born.

Ah, the smell of ancient history and winter green hangs powerfully in the nostrils.
But what team will Andy Robinson pick to face the All Blacks?

Well, I think he will be loyal, as far as possible, to the players who brought him success in the Southern Hemisphere.

There were seven uncapped players in the squad and thanks to injuries and religion the front row probably picks itself.

Ryan Grant has developed into the country's best scrummaging loosehead, Ross Ford can concentrate on playing and will be the hooker, and Geoff Cross for my mind is still a great combination of passionate player and ball carrier.

I'd pick Al Kellock in the second row with Richie Gray. Whatever it will be a huge second row with Jim Hamilton the other possible partner to Gray in the boiler house with Gray hopefully over that ankle and the troubles at Sale.

The back row provides a problem. David Denton, for me, was the Scottish player of the Six Nations last season and I am guessing but once you pick your captain, in this case Kelly Brown, you then need to figure out where to pick him.

If David Denton were on fire as he was last year he would be at 8 but there is an argument which says that given Al Strokosh's industry in France and the need for his inclusion that could mean Brown at 8 and Ross Rennie at open side.

For my money I'd go with Denton at 8 with Kelly Brown and John Barclay reunited in the back row.

In the backs Mike Blair has the experience, and Greig Laidlaw is the current stand-off with the blue jersey so I can't another partnership than that.

The centres are trickier to pick, Max Evans may be asked to play there and likewise Nick de Luca and Matt Scott have grown into their centre roles.

It's probably too early for Peter Horne who may have his chance against Tonga.

The All Blacks will be a formidable force and so size could be key further out in the backs. Tim Visser and Sean Lamont - both bigger than the biggest All Black on their 1905 tour - must be in with a shout but Lee Jones has played well for his country and Stuart Hogg could be at fifteen.

The team I'd pick to play the All Blacks is Ryan Grant, Ross Ford, Geoff Cross, Al Kellock, Richie Gray, Kelly Brown, David Denton, John Barclay, Mike Blair, Greig Laidlaw, Tim Visser, Matt Scott, Max Evans, Sean Lamont, Stuart Hogg.

What's yours? And do you think Scotland can beat the All Blacks for the first time?

I'll get back to that but the predicted articles about Gregor Townsend, the Glasgow Warriors coach, being under pressure are appearing already. He's not actually, athough the entertainment value of the Warriors on Friday night was minimal with a beautiful new stadium contrasting with a game that would have passed an audition for the ugliest sister in Cinderalla. Edinburgh's win though was a beautiful thing and their first in Wales since 2009.

Methinks that Warriors will miss Richie Gray and his power. Having watched the rugby league immediately afterward I wish that rugby union teams would use more passes behind the obvious recipient to help generate width thanks to deception.

Rugby union is becoming far too crash bang (which is for another article) though the games have been improved due to the new scrummage engagement laws. "Crouch, touch, set!" seems to be working.

Back to the main topic and, as the seasons change, the leaves start to fall and you can see your breath, it's interesting that as we get under way in the northern hemisphere, the rugby season at the bottom half of the world nears its end. The Championship, as it's called, has the four great powers of southern hemisphere rugby lined up against each other, with Argentina the new team, as the culmination of their year.

New Zealand won 49-3 at Murrayfield in 2010. Pic: SNS

You may want to argue with me all day but in my opinion southern hemisphere players are better than ours. Some of the most valuable players in French, English, Irish and Scottish teams are, actually, Kiwis, South Africans, Aussies, and a host of Samoans, Fijiians and Tongans.

Why this is the case, who really knows? Perhaps it's to do with the fact that, as water goes down a plug hole, it goes clockwise for them and ant-clockwise for us. Or is that myth? But England being the only northern hemisphere team to win the World Cup in 2003 is the evidence of our inferiority.

And you may not like this but I was glad England won.

So the All Blacks come to Murrayfield this November and that, bizarrely, will be their pre-season tour. The All Blacks are the World Cup holders. What a scalp it would be for Scotland.

After the summer tour where the revitalised Scots beat the Aussies, Samoa and Fiji, I think this is the best chance Scotland will ever have to beat a team like the Kiwis.

Reasons to be cheerful? Andy Robinson has become more ruthless. Skills coach Scott Johnson has brought in some basics to do with each part of a game linking with the other. There is a scrummage that can go forward. And, frankly, the team has to prove it can do it at home.

New Zealanders, I would guess, tour the world and expect to win. We have played the All Blacks 28 times since the first game in 1905, and the highlights for us have been two draws. Imagine that, the highlights are two draws. A no scoring draw in 1964 and twenty 25 points a piece in 1983. Both ancient history for you lot reading this, but I was at the game in 1983.

Worryingly, the record is particularly bad in the last five years with three games against the All Blacks in which we have scored 9 points, all kicks, and the All Blacks have put 121 points past us.

This is all useful knowledge with, in the background, the Scottish Rugby's target in the air. Their target for the Scottish rugby team is to win the next World Cup.

Contrasting our two countries is worthwhile. In New Zealand there are 147,000 players. In Scotland the target was to reach around 40,000 by 2012.

While New Zealand won the recent World Cup, Scotland failed to reach the quarter-finals for the first time in history.

And yet, and yet, I feel something happening.

The key, to me, is to get the national team together as often as possible before November. Part of the success of the summer tour was the very fact that the team trained together.

After all, what are Edinburgh and Glasgow for other than to prepare players for Scotland?

I don't know about you, but I can't wait for the season to get its momentum.

If ever Scotland has a chance to beat the All Blacks, it's this November. You agree? Dene te, tanga ta, puhuru, huru....

I hate traffic jams. Being stuck in thousands of pounds worth of steel cage designed to swoop along highland roads or fly down an airstrip - or so Top Gear would have you believe - is my idea of a complete waste of time and a break down in the transport system.

And if the build-up to London 2012 was to be believed then this great city was going to give every traveller a heart attack.

One of the Olympic bus lanes during London 2012. Pic: Reuters

The BBC Scotland team arrived here early and television and radio stations pumped out dire warnings as to the havoc the Olympic lanes were going to cause.

Oh, the statistics were harrowing. 200,000 people were going to the Olympic park on 'Super Saturday'. Around 8.8 million tickets were available and 21,000 media were in attendance. Residents weren't happy, and the implicit advice was that people shouldn't travel.

Before all of the recent Games there have been problems. Two years ago at the Commonwealth games the Delhi athletes' village was a mess. Huge big tame monkeys called Langoors were called in to chase away the native monkeys and travel was to experience delays. Actually, it all worked.

In Athens at the 2004 Olympics the venues were meant to be unfinished. They were ready. Without tempting fate, Glasgow will be ready too.

So, what happened in London? Because Londoners were told not to travel, the shops have been hit hard. I even think that some people who had bought tickets didn't turn up to watch events they had paid for because they had been warned that the roads and the subway would be so busy.

But there have been no stories about travel delays. The travel network coped thanks to extra busses and trains and the Olympic bus lanes for media, dignitaries and athletes worked for a simple reason I will come back to.

London attracts 30 million tourists every year, which is 1.2 million people for the two weeks of the Games. The population of London is just over eight million. The reality is that a huge city like London could have, of a weekend, three Premier League football matches taking place with 150,000 people moving around the city.

In Edinburgh of a rugby weekend, around 70,000 people walk from the stadium to the city centre and the pubs, hotels and shops make money.

In Glasgow the same goes for an Old Firm match. 50,000 people watched AC/DC and Take That at Hampden Park in Glasgow and, having been to one of the concerts - I won't admit to which one - they were sadly let down by lack of travel capacity laid on as fans queued for trains from Mount Florida.

But here in London, Olympic tourists did not create such a big splash that the system ground to a halt.

Let's come back to the Olympic bus lanes. Oh, it's easy to dislike them. The Olympic rings are painted on, and, dear oh dear, the outside lanes were commandeered - the go faster lanes. The people who usually use them were kicked off them.

But Olympic venues here in London have been on the fringes of the city. And it will be the same for Glasgow. As people are coming in to work, the Glasgow 2014 lanes will, primarily, be taking people from their city centre hotels in exactly the opposite direction!

Just think of the venues. Ibrox, Hampden, Scotstoun, Kelvingrove, the SECC, mountain biking at Carmunnock, the wet stuff at Strathclyde Park or Tollcross.

As the citizens of Glasgow travel to the city centre to work, the athletes and media will be travelling the other way - except for evening events.

And the truth of the matter too is that so many of the Glasgow venues will be accessible by trains, subways, busses or even on foot.

But what of London? There has been over-capacity in the system for the Games with so many extra busses and trains put on that some travel empty. You never have to wait. Entrances and exits from stations have been split so as an arriving crowd comes in one door, those leaving are guided to another. Crowds move together.

London's transport worked. Glasgow needs to provide that extra public transport capacity.

Looking ahead just two years, the organisers have a crucial role to play in 2014. They must tell people to throng the city and make it the vibrant place we all want it too be.

When the Games come to Glasgow, travel to the events and come to our city, no matter where in the world you are from. It will be fine.

How often do you cry? Ahem, in extreme moments of tiredness, Lassie, or ET for me.
But London 2012 has become the crying Games.

It's not new though. Sir Matthew Pincent blubbed in Athens, as if part of some Greek tragedy, as he won his fourth gold medal.

At the same games Paula Radcliffe was spotted in floods of tears being driven away after having dropped out of the marathon.

My friend Gavin Hastings had Dougie Donnelly in a flap when he was overcome by tears during an interview after a loss to the England rugby team.

Golfer Tiger Woods cried after winning the Open in 2006, tennis player Roger Federer cried in his post-match interview after being bludgeoned by a young Rafa Nadal at the Australian Open in 2009, footballer Paul Gascoigne lost it in the 1990 World Cup and Mary Decker lay on the ground weeping after an accidental clash of heels with fellow athlete Zola Budd at the 1984 Olympic Games.

But they were sporadic instances. Here, in London, it seems everyone is in tears.

Victoria Pendleton has had an emotional Games. Picture: Getty Images

I watched Team GB's women's hockey team in their huddle after their final game and I think they were all in tears after they were knocked out.

Sir Chris Hoy cried on the podium, Victoria Pendleton did as well.

Great Britain national treasure Rebecca Adlington wiped away tears as she accepted a bronze. Jessica Ennis cried as she held her posy of flowers. Either that or she had hay fever.

South African Chad le Clos wept as he beat Michael Phelps and even Mizuki Fujii and Reika Kakiiwa of Japan cried as they won silver in the badminton doubles. They'd been trying to win gold but deliberately threw the match but soon realised they had meant to stop doing that in the round-robin section. Only joking.

Even my friend and colleague John Inverdale cried after interviewing Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase lost their lightweight double sculls title to the dastardly Danes.

What's happening here? I nearly cried during the opening ceremony, shed a tear when Katherine Grainger won her long overdue gold - which was followed by Katherine crying on the podium as the flag went up.

Obviously, when sportsmen and women are interviewed after their events, most of us realise that they have just competed to exhaustion.

I was never a full-time athlete but in our generation we had to go back to work and face workmates or fellow townsfolk if we lost a match.

Rugby used to be what Bill McLaren called a "diversion from the daily grind".

Modern Olympic athletes are, for the most part, completely wrapped up in their sport. It is their everything.

They are publicly funded, the subject of TV, radio and newspaper coverage and, as technology moves on, they are brought into sharp focus for millions of people who, very suddenly, are very interested. It must be intolerable.

Picture yourself. You are exhausted after this one moment which has come at the end of four years of planning. Then your asked how you feel if you have lost or you are standing on a podium with your flag hoisted high.

Kheredine Idessane will be commentating on you, millions are watching on TV, you feel pride, John Inverdale is crying, your family are watching and your agent has just called to say you've got a free car, a new house and a certain porridge oats manufacturer wants you to be the new face on their packet.

Seriously. I cry. I am sure you cry. But why are all these athletes crying in London, and far more frequently than ever before?

It's been a good day, however, watching equestrianism and the medal attempt by Scott Brash from Peebles.

Sad that his medal chances went with an early fault, but Brash is now forever famous for his answer to Clare Balding the night he and his team won their equestrian team gold.

She asked him what effect a gold medal might have on his life. He said: "Well, I really hope it improves my pulling power with women, to be honest with you - yeah, I think that's about it."

Where do they go for this kind of stuff in Peebles?

An emotional Hoy after receiving his sixth Olympic gold medal. Pic: Getty Images

I'm just back from a tour of the park looking for fans to talk about Sir Chris Hoy. Some young women in union flag 'onesies' (one piece jump suits zipped up the front) said they admired Sir Chris, and one of them claimed that he is British while Andy Murray is Scottish.

Interestingly a Hungarian fan said he thought that Sir Chris Hoy had just won the Tour de France...

The BBC Scotland Olympics correspondent Kheredine Idessane has now commentated on both Andy Murray and Sir Chris Hoy winning gold medals.

Or shouldn't that be Sir Andy Murray by now? Anyway, I insist on equal billing and we have put in a request to cover the sailing at Weymouth but so far it's a no from the producer.

But it all leaves a question hanging in the air. Does he keep competing? Here's hoping Sir
Chris makes the right decision about the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. He will now be under incalculable pressure to turn up at the velodrome in Glasgow's east end. Did they name it after him to get him to come?

He has become a figurehead for Scottish sport, a "guaranteed" gold medal, and yet, all the while, he has been hinting that the weight on his shoulders has been horrendous. There were tears on the podium and he had to dig deep to win.

I really wonder if he can keep strong enough to continue and win gold in the arena bearing his name in Glasgow.

Some athletes have gone on too long, and we can name them.

Sir Chris seemed to get on well with Shane Perkins, the Australian who was in his final on the track, but one of the silliest aspects of London 2012 has been the British 'teasing', for want of a better word, of the Aussies and their lack of medals.

Better to leave it to the politicians I always say. So step forward Australia's sports minister who is set to don a Team GB shirt and take to the water after losing a bet with her UK counterpart as to who would win more gold medals.

Kate Lundy has "cheerfully conceded" defeat and will row a length at Eton Dorney next month.

Had Australia won more golds, Hugh Robertson would have had to dribble a hockey ball in central London.

The UK has won 22 gold medals so far compared with Australia's four.

But there's a sense that the end of these Olympic Games is in sight and I have a realisation that the scale of the operation is huge.

Great Britain and Northern Ireland have won 22 gold medals of the 181 available to date. There are 10,000 athletes. Teams like Uzbekistan and Hong Kong have just one medal, a bronze, each.

There will, however, be 302 gold medals awarded by the end of the Games, and 204 nations and independent territories will be fighting over bits of metal weighing 400g each.

And I hope, no matter what he decides, that Sir Chris Hoy's last medal is a gold one.

Rich countries have an advantage.

We have to temper our pride against the truth, which is that it's an unfair fight.

Marvellous though it is, it's only a small pool of countries prepared to spend the millions needed to win medals at expensive sports.

Let me see. I'd go for rowing, cycling, swimming, sailing and athletics. And guess what?

That's the five sports funded to a far greater extent than most of the others - and one sport has received huge sums of cash but hasn't delivered the medals.

Put it this way. You'd have to be a fairly rich country to build indoor velodromes.

The tracks are built to fractions of an inch, the indoor climate is controlled, and the doors are air-sealed.

Then you'd have to invest in the most high-tech bikes in the world; so light you can pick them up between your fingers, so strong they don't fail, so fast they have no rolling or internal resistance, and so aerodynamic they cut through the air.

So, take a look at how much money UK Sport gives to some sports.

There are five sports getting more than £20m each between 2009 and 2013. And all the sports have agreed targets.

At the very top of the money list is Rowing.

Again, remember all the medals Team GB won in rowing, including Katherine Grainger in the double sculls and Heather Stanning in the rowing doubles.

Rowing is richer to the tune of £27,287,600.

Yes, a huge sum, and that buys the best sport physiotherapists, the sleekest boats, access to the best training, world travel and, well, the list goes on.

Rowing's performance target for London 2012 was six medals, it produced nine. A good return, but £3m per medal.

In second place in terms of funding from UK sport is cycling.

Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton are the top of the tree that shares £26m give or take a few pennies.

The first indoor velodrome in the UK was built for the Manchester Commonwealth Games of 2002, and at the moment there are only three in the UK.

The medal target agreed for that money was six to ten. As I write this cycling, both track and on the road, has won a combined total of nine medals.

Cycling's performance director Dave Brailsford will be a happy man. Just.

He promised those medals.

Swimming is getting £25,144,600. State-of-the-art pools and training and science back up all cost money.

Their performance target was five to seven medals and they have failed to meet even the lower level of that deal as swimming sits at just the three medals.

Someone is in trouble, or should be given that massive investment.

The fourth richest sport is athletics with £25m, give or take a few pennies.

They promised five to eight medals and sit at four as I write with quite a few solid medal prospects.

Sailing is funded to the tune of £22m, has a performance target of three to five medals, and, even before Rhu's Luke Patience gets his guaranteed silver, sits on three medals.

These are huge sums of money. Swimming, obviously, has underperformed.

Other underperformers include canoeing, who get £16m but came up with two medals against a target of three to four.

Diving received £6.5m, had a performance target of one to three medals, but won none.

I could go through the list and pick the underperformers - whose directors of performance will have difficult interviews to come - and those who have done well.

But as I sit in the velodrome and, rightly, applaud Sir Chris Hoy and his team mates on their stunning success, it's worth remembering that, actually, it's not a fair fight.

Cycling's success cost millions and yet, as I write, there is no sign that the performance was vastly greater than what was promised.

Money talks

My in box gets some strange emails. For the last two weeks it's been getting mass emails with quotes from politicians congratulating athletes on their success.

Which is very strange.

I think the success of the athletes reflects on the volunteers, families, support systems, and the people whose tax helps pay for them, rather than politicians.

I'm down here in London, and I detect a "happiness", for want of a better word, brought on by the event, the successes, and the golden colour of the coverage.

The effect of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth games on Scotland will be momentous.

But politicians don't actually own the money that's spent.

It's our money.

It's the money we've given over by way of tax both personal and corporate, it's the lottery tickets we've bought, community charge, business rates, parking fines and all the other ways we pool our money, that have actually given these team GB athletes a chance to win.

And the reason major companies can afford to sponsor these games is because we buy their products.

It's wonderful, it's magical, but it wasn't made by politicians.

Anyway, yesterday was extraordinary. BBC Scotland's Olympics Correspondent Kheredine Idessane and I were dispatched to Wimbledon with news ringing in our ears that we were to cover the tennis.

We sweated our way onto a subway, grabbed a train, got soaked outside Wimbledon train station, and, because the bus queue was more than a hundred metres long, jumped in a taxi with a big sign saying "£2.50 per person to Wimbledon stadium!"

Three English folks were inside. We smiled, and they saw our media passes. "Ah, BBC Scotland..." said the friendly old bloke to my right.

We admitted to the fact. "But you're not supporting Andy Murray are you? He swears too much."

We both expressed surprise that he and his family weren't supporting Team GB, but, hey, it's personal choice.

And, yet again, it was obvious that the Olympics, in terms of the fans, have none of the aggression that haunts other sports.

This is a friendly coming together of countries.

Lugging boxes full of broadcasting kit we wandered through yet more x-ray machines, enjoyed a searching frisk or two, passed within two feet of Roger Federer (lovely skin) who was loping out on his way to warm up, climbed the steps to the commentary positions, plugged up, watched Andy Murray take a commanding lead when the game got underway, and then heard BBC Radio Scotland Richard Gordon link to us from the football.

Kheredine and I winked at each other.

Out came the notes, Kheredine, a former 800 metre athlete, shifted into second gear and he commentated and I summarised.

"Sounds fine, keep going," came word from the producer in Glasgow.

The day will live with me for ever.

We finished the commentary, Kheredine went to the satellite truck to send some TV pictures to Scotland with cameraman Alan.

And Andy Murray stayed behind to be interviewed by BBC Scotland.

I pinched myself again and again as Kheredine and I smiled on the bus leaving Wimbledon.

Did we really commentate on a gold medal, by a Scotsman, at Wimbledon?

Days fly past here. By now it was after eight o'clock at night. Usain Bolt was racing at ten to ten.

We decided to take a risk and head for the Olympic stadium. An hour and twenty minutes later I felt as though I'd been abducted by aliens.

Huge towers of futuristic floodlights had turned night time, and the inside of the biggest space ship in the universe, into daylight and the build up to the biggest race of the Olympics.

Looking around I noticed people struggling to take it in.

The inside of the Olympic stadium is modern, loud, shiny, metallic, glamorous, high-tech, welcoming, bathed in light, massive, and superbly fit for purpose.

Cameraman Alan and I joined our colleagues from BBC Wales on the first tier of broadcast places right in line with the finish.

Usain Bolt played up for the cameras, and then blasted down the track.

People around me jumped up and down. The volume was oppressive but reassuring at the same time.

To be that loud it had to be very, very important.
And I've been trying all morning to analyse it. What did we all feel in the stadium? Why did people hold their heads, smile, shoot eyebrows skyward, and applaud and shout?

The word, I think, is joy.

The BBC has footage of Colin Jackson, the former hurdler, losing the plot in the studio talking of "What's his name....the Big Man."

Ah, the beauty of athletics analysis.

Early indications are that the TV audience was massive. People were captivated.

Seeing men and women compete at their best is magical whether it's at Wimbledon, the Olympic stadium, or even at Scotstoun stadium in Glasgow.

One of the most important effects of these massive sporting events is, yes, political.

But the effect isn't created by politicians. It is made and paid for by people.

Please, no more emails .

He mentioned filling the stadia from day one which would be superb.

But it's at least partly about a charm offensive.

The lessons for Glasgow in 2014 are plain to see every day I make my way to the Olympic park.

Asif was standing on my platform, just one of three Docklands Light Railway staff on each of the platforms at our station.

He wears a very high visibility vest and he smiles when you talk to him.

I was rushing. "Is this the train for Poplar?" I belted out in my sweaty, sun drenched rush.

He was calmness in my raging ocean; "No, sir," he said. "Just wait here for the next train which is along in two minutes."

Asif told me he works seven hours each day standing on the platform.

His job is to make sure that the visitors from around the world, many of them completely perplexed by interlocking arteries of thronging human mass, get to where they want to go.

All of the transport staff, whether from the DLR, the overground or the subway, are, you can tell, on a selling mission.

They are selling London, England, and the UK.

There is, frankly, over capacity.

There are so many trains that they never seem full. There are so many helpers that you never feel you need to look for one.

When we leave work at night the buses are double deckers and they leave on time.

The drivers smile at us.

And then there are the volunteers, many of them from Scotland.

How would you describe the volunteers? Well, have you ever been in that very up-market hotel in Perthshire?

If you walk down the corridor, but don't meet a member of staff's gaze, he or she walks by without interrupting you.

If your eyes do make contact you get a 'Good morning, Sir' and a warm smile.

If you ask for help it's 'Of course, Sir...' and there's an earnest smile plus all the help you could ever want.

That's what the volunteers do here in London.

They're also on loudspeakers: "Welcome to London, wherever you are in the world we hope you have a fantastic time in our city....please keep to the left. Come on Team GB!"

And then there are the signs.

I have never, ever in my life seen such clear signage. "OLYMPIC PARK THIS WAY," they scream in bright, bright pink.

If I were to look down at my feet at any underground station or anywhere near a park, and then lift up my eyes, I would be able to see a sign telling me where I need to go.

I could find at least ten volunteers, there would be three buses, a train ready and someone from the public transport system ready to help me.

And I know it's a selfish thought but the Olympic lane is absolutely key.

It might be hard for the local population for two or three weeks of the entire year, but for the camera crews sent here from overseas it all helps to paint that rosy picture.

Everyone I speak to from the countries of the world says that London has put on an incredibly friendly face.

Oh, and I want to mention the armed forces. Again, unfailingly courteous and efficient.

Young men and women who should really be on holiday smile, search us, protect us, and offer solutions.

Last night one came to my aid in a small way. It was to do with liquid I shouldn't have been taking through an X ray machine.

He calmly offered to put it aside for me to collect later on leaving the park.

Seriously, I'd pay the army to provide security for Glasgow.

The best thing Scotland can do for itself in 2014 is to project an image of positivity and friendliness, which will have to be led by public service workers, volunteers, security, small business owners, and the sheer volume of buses, trains, subway cars and people to make travel in and around the city and from venue to venue flawless and a pleasure.

London 2012 is working with an efficient smile.

I just want to take a few moments to have some brief thoughts about this and get your feelings on it too.

But before I get started, perhaps the Olympics demonstrate perfectly that mankind is not perfect.

In a world where Nasa's mission control claim that "failure is not an option", failure, actually, is part of every day life.

There have been empty seats, broken seats, food stalls that have run out of food, and claims that some water fountains have been at a trickle.

In order to get a ticket for an event and upon hearing that only those from the "Olympic family" can get them, I looked up my history and luckily my father's grandmother was from Ireland and called Ora O'Lympic.

On the plus side, a man has offered his spare Olympic seats to a couple who travelled from Australia to watch the boxing but found that their tickets were fakes.

Ann and Graham Smith travelled to London from the Gold Coast, but found their tickets had been bought from a bogus website.

They are bowled over with the perfect beauty surrounding an act like this, while the ticket-supplier wishes to remain anonymous.

And the armed forces have seen their popularity rise rapidly here thanks to their interaction with the general public. Today I was frisked by a very young lad from Possil in Glasgow. I haven't been called "Sir" for a long time.

But what of the Olympics? I just want to ask a few harsh questions as any observer should.

According to sportscotland's 'Participation in Sport and Physical Recreation in Scotland: 2005-07 Overview', just 47% of Scottish adults take part in sport once a month, which means that 53% don't.

So, why might people not be interested in the Olympics?

I'll pick just four aspects:

The first question has to concern money. Are the Olympics about sport or about commercialism?

I've made a radio report about there being only one type of credit card accepted in the Olympic park, there is only one kind of burger you can buy, and only one kind of cola.

The principal sponsors, who are massive companies, buy into the goodness, the purity and the wholesomeness of sport. But you could argue that as soon as major companies get involved in anything it ceases to be pure.

The second aspect is around the role of the principal actors: the athletes.

Are athletes really such great role models? They are paid by you and me to do their job full-time. To win they have to really want to win.

They win for their country, their families, and their employers, but fundamentally the drive to win comes from within.

If I look deep inside myself, it is my weakness; a strange need to win things. People who don't see winning as key will see it as selfish, a needless drive that the world might do without.

Modern athletes are media trained too and every move is choreographed or controlled in a fashion unimaginable in 1948, the last time the games were here in London.

You will note, for instance, that the current Team GB message is to thank the support, thank everyone who helped them along the way, admire the noise the crowd made, express pride, and say how just getting to where they got to in the race was just wonderful.

The Australian athletes of old were even "podium trained" so that they brushed their hair and smiled hard, no matter the medal.

And what of nationalism? There is inherent in all of us a yearning to belong somewhere. It's expressed as coming from a family, or a town, or a country.

But perhaps some might despise the fact that countries pay people to practice, let's say the javelin, for four years so that an anthem rings out and a flag is raised.

Just ask the North and South Koreans.

And finally, do we just accept that some people are not interested in the Olympics?

You might be a sportsman or woman involved in another sport and still have no interest in the sports on display here in London.

How many of you, for instance, go three-day eventing?

To me, one of the beauties of the Olympics is learning something about a sport I've never seen before.

What do you think? Are you a fan of the Olympics?

Or at least there is here in London and Sunday was a subdued day.

Here's a thought: Everyone else is trying to win gold medals too!

There was supposed to be a medal bounce at these games, or at least a preliminary medal splash in the pool. But no. It was a disappointing first weekend for those Scottish athletes in finals.

From a Scottish perspective Imogen Bankier couldn't make it through the knockout stages of the mixed doubles.

David Millar and the cycling road race team didn't realise that the rest of the world might not just allow them to dominate and win for Mark Cavendish.

Andy and Jamie Murray were beaten in the tennis doubles, and Elena Baltacha announced she might quit and have ankle surgery.

In Hannah's case I found it gut wrenching as I remember a Phil Goodlad film for Sport Nation which followed her rising early in the morning, jogging to work, training in a small pool, receiving acupuncture, and fitting university into the mix.

I hope she goes well in her next event.

Caitlin McClatchey in Team GB couldn't win a medal in their relay.

And it got me thinking about whether we should be worried about this?

Evidently the Aussies were alarmed at the lack of medals in the Sydney games, and the Canadians were trembling at the beginning of the winter games.

In some ways this is both the beauty and horror of sport. There is no such thing as a guaranteed medal. Money in at one end doesn't mean a country is rewarded at the other by a medal.

Pressure will now build on athletes who are publicly funded in a country's hope that they win medals.

Our guess prior to the games was that Scots should win ten or eleven of team GB's medals but thanks to the advent of some Chinese superstars in the pool it looks as though Hannah Miley now might not be one of them.

But it's time to cheer up.

Still to come are Katherine Grainger, Chris Hoy, Mhairi Spence, Heather Stanning, more from Andy Murray who cruised through his singles match, Daniel Purvis, Euan Burton, Luke Patience, Colin Fleming and David Florence.

But winning medals might be tougher for Team GB, and its Scottish athletes, than we realised.

Before I go, my fun bit for today is this piece of video you have to watch. Who was she?
https://bbcstreaming.pages.dev/news/world-asia-19035551

Do you, like me, see an anomaly in the fact that £500m in lottery and taxpayers' money has been handed out to Olympic sports since the Games were awarded to London in 2005 and yet there is no win bonus?

The rain battered off my student accommodation window this morning. The opening ceremony beckons, a day of broadcasts lies ahead and our Olympics correspondent, Kheredine Idessane, has arrived to join our small team.

Jane Lewis, who was presenting the morning news bulletins, hooked up with me by phone early in the morning to talk about what we'd say when we were on air on Good Morning Scotland.

The swimming media conference followed and the three present - Keri-Anne Payne, James Goddard and Robbie Renwick - also talked of the honour they felt in competing at the Olympics. Payne, specifically, said that she had turned down money-earning opportunities to concentrate on training to help her win gold.

And then Sir Steve Redgrave was on TV last night saying that here in the UK we are fixated by medals. You and I might think this was a Corinthian call. But, instead, he went on to say that the only medal that matters is gold. Silver, he said, is first loser.

And yet no win bonus for a gold medal? That's when I thought that Jane and I should talk about it.

While Team GB won't pay a win bonus for winning gold, the Germans dosh out £12,436, the Australians £12,906 and we rise up through the other teams in ascending value - the United States, South Korea, Japan, China, France and we end up at the top two Olympic gold prospectors: the Russians at £85,791 and those paragons of tax collection, the Italians at £116,075.

So let's examine this. If anyone out there thinks the athletes who compete for Great Britain are glorious amateurs then they are deluded.

There are various stages of funding depending on the level of support they receive - the base level is £29,000 tax free - and they are able then to get their own sponsorship, within limits, and they also compete for prize money at the tournaments they go to around the world. Ironically, they take part in those events to get ranking points so that they can be selected to compete at the Olympics.

So, somehow, it's okay to be paid to train thanks to taxpayers' money and it's okay to be paid to compete at events around the world, but it's not acceptable in the UK to be paid to win an Olympic gold medal?

Lots of athletes will say they don't want, or need, to be paid to compete at the Olympics. Which misses the point that they already are. And the fact that a gold medal comes with its future promise of financial reward as a direct result of winning that gold medal.

Perhaps that's enough?

Most management studies into the role of money in the workplace examine the unique ability of cash to make people unhappy. Money makes you jealous, but if you have no money and you need to eat then money comes in very handy. And most established sports, like football, rugby (both codes), professional basketball, cricket and a host of others, offer win bonuses.

I know that motivation in sport is very complicated. But, despite its car-crash effect in the world of high finance, where top businessmen, it seems to me, are given millions for managing companies as successfully as I might, money seems to talk.

Would giving Team GB athletes a win bonus for gold medals affect the final medal table and shift the emphasis, as Redgrave wants, from winning a medal to focussing on gold? I wonder.

And is it right to offer money to win a gold medal in the first place?

Right, off to prepare for the opening ceremony. When they called for "JB", I completely misunderstood. James Bond, now there is a man who had his eye on gold.

How exactly do you fly a helicopter?

After my last bit of writing I have suddenly realised that I am spending way too much time with this person: Rhona McLeod. We appear to get on okay despite the age difference, yes, she is 10 years older than me.

Yesterday afternoon was spent in the International Broadcast Centre which is a massive, high-tech, air-conditioned, steel shed within the Olympic park. The BBC has a part of it which is full of buzzing and whirring machines, TV screens, and people feverishly making sure that radio and TV bits work.

There are so many well-known BBC faces walking by that I start to nod to people involuntarily. I know them, but they don't know me. Huw Edwards must think I'm daft, and I nearly asked Sue Barker how her garden was going. She looks like a neighbour.

The links had all been filmed for Sport Nation tonight at 1900 BST on BBC2 Scotland, so later in the afternoon I was testing kit and talking to producers about radio output for the following day.

Then it was on the bus back to our student accommodation for a brief bit of fitness in the local park, and our walk out in the evening for some food was disrupted with the news of "A bad Korea choice".

The North Korean delegation at Hampden show off their national flag after the embarrassing blunder by the Olympic organisers

So it was straight to planning for a morning live radio "hit" with Chris McLaughlin on BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland.

He wanted to talk about the international reaction to the Korean flag episode at Hampden and medal chances. I wake my producer up and set up in his room.

Kay Adams, who meets me for coffee sometimes, suggested in her trail for her own programme just before I came on that men can't just be "friends" with women. Oh yes we can.

Because of the change in news emphasis now the flag fiasco had changed things, we had to alter a link for the TV programme so went back out into the Olympic park with our camera man, and then we thought we should get some Korean reaction to the Hampden story. As in: "What's the Hampden roar?"

KBS, the South Korean state broadcasters are just down the corridor from us and were delightful in being willing to be interviewed, as were MPC their oldest commercial TV station. Both said they were slightly insulted by what happened.

So I raced to feed the audio back to Scotland as time was tight, tested a new piece of kit ideal for radio outside broadcasts, then went on lunchtime radio with Ken MacDonald.

But back to Scotland's medal tally at the end of these games. There is what they call a "home bounce". Just by having the games here there's an effect.

The Spanish had a home bounce of 1200% for the Barcelona games in 1992. And the last three countries to host the Olympics, Australia, Greece and China, have had improvements in their medal tallies of around 60%
.
The IOC doesn't believe in medal tables. It's all about taking part they say. But you and me? We look for our medal tally.

Scotland won six of the 47 team GB medals in 2008. Sir Chris Hoy won three, and the others were spread between rower Katherine Grainger, cyclist Ross Edgar, and canoeist David Florence.

But what do the experts think? Some international research from the Madrid Sportometric study group thinks that team GB will win 56 medals based on a range of factors from the sheer size of the country to that much vaunted home bounce.
Proportionally that means that Scotland will win seven medals.

Well, I don't really want to question the experts, but I heard a whisper that the management of team GB reckon they have a chance of 90 medals. If that's the case, it's a doubling which is more in line with the Sportscotland prediction of medals into double figures.

There you are. A home bounce for Scotland to win around 10 medals at London 2012.

Sport Nation will be on BBC Radio Scotland on Saturday from 1100 BST
Follow John Beattie on Twitter @bbcjohnbeattie