Craig Peter Hamilton won his first cap on Scotland’s 2004 summer tour to Australia, coming on as a replacement in the second Test. The cap was reward for sterling performances against Queensland Reds, New South Wales Country, and New South Wales which led him to be heralded as the ‘find of the tour’. He played in four more Tests in 2005, and though he was on Scotland’s 2008 tour to Argentina he did not figure in the match squad for either Test match. Craig represented Scotland under-21 in the 2000 SANZAR tournament, starting against Tonga and coming on as a replacement against South Africa and Argentina.

He has played 17 times for Scotland A, making his debut in June 2006 in the 13-7 against England Saxons in the Barclays Churchill Cup match in Toronto. He took part in victories in Scotland A’s three 2008 matches – 37-15 against Italy A in Mogliano, near Venice, 67-7 against Ireland A at McDiarmid Park, Perth, and 69-3 against Georgia at Firhill, Glasgow. He played in all three matches in Scotland A’s IRB Nations Cup triumph in Bucharest in June 2009, and he made a replacement appearance five months later in the 38-7 win against Tonga at Netherdale, Galashiels. Craig has most recently represented Scotland A against Ireland A and Italy A in February 2010. He also represented Scottish Students, in particular starting in their game against French Students at Inverleith in March 2002.

Craig, a former pupil of Stranraer Academy, was originally with the Wigtownshire club and latterly West of Scotland before crossing the border to study in Newcastle and join Newcastle Falcons, where he played alongside fellow Scot, Stuart Grimes. They were reunited with Border Reivers in season 2006-2007, and they made their competition debuts for Reivers together in the second row against Connacht at Netherdale on the Magners League’s opening day that season. Craig moved from Newcastle to Glasgow Warriors in the summer of 2005, then to Reivers a year later, and on to Edinburgh in 2007.

While with Wigtownshire, Craig played for Scotland under-18 and was in the Glasgow Thistles’ 1999 development squad in New Zealand.