Team Scotland Fighting For Independence?

By Niall Paterson, Sky News Correspondent

It's really not quite what I expected. As someone brought up on the sweat-and-spit-bucket boxing stereotype perpetuated by the Rocky films, Team Scotland's facility in the Bridgeton area of Glasgow is something of a revelation.

Bright, airy, full of new kit, and without a spit bucket in sight, these are training facilities that professionals would covet.

The gym echoes to the squeak of shoes on wood, the steady thump-thump-thump of combinations being thrown.

Heavy bags swing like condemned criminals, as the boxers punch, bob and weave in one of their last training sessions before the Games begin.

There's an air of confidence to these young men born less of their ability to take and throw a hefty blow but of the months of arduous training that have led them to this point.

Team Scotland expect to win medals.

If they close their eyes they can hear Flower of Scotland being bellowed by appreciative crowds as the Saltire is raised and they take their place at the top of the podium.

Team Scotland boxers in training for the Commonwealth Games.

Scotland's boxers have been training hard for Glasgow

The referendum is far from the front of their minds. Understandable, given what they'll be facing in just a few days.

But it has long been argued that success for Team Scotland at the Commonwealth Games could convert into support for the Yes campaign.

I'm not so sure.

London 2012 is commonly held to have engendered so much national pride that we were fit to burst.

Frankly, much of that sense of being part of a greater whole seems to have dissipated, going by the invective directed at Scotland by some people not directly involved in the independence debate.

And surely there's a difference between the short-lived euphoria that surrounds cheering on and celebrating with your team, and a longer lasting desire to seek self-determination.

Commonwealth Games - Team Scotland Kitting Out - University of Stirling

Members of Team Scotland showing off their controversial uniforms

Ninety-minute nationalism, as one academic described it to me, seems all important at the time but ultimately proves ephemeral.

And even if there were to be any lasting effects from the Games, wouldn't Better Together stand as much chance of benefiting as Yes?

After all, these were formerly known as the British Empire Games. The Queen will be in attendance. The countries that participate are part of that shared age of Empire.

One for debate, perhaps.

Sporting events have always been used for political purposes - Hitler in 1936, for example.

Both sides of the independence debate have been at pains to promise this is nothing more than a celebration of sport.

We'll see.

In Bridgeton, I'm sure of one thing only. It's a brave man who'll step into the ring and face off against Team Scotland.

Josh Taylor, Stephen Lavelle, Joe Ham and the rest are waiting. And they've got a nation in their corner.