Craig Peter Hamilton (born 1 September 1979,

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; ; from ) is a market town and former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, near the mouth of the River Nith on the Solway Firth, from the Anglo-Scottish border. Dumfries is the county town of the Counties of Scotland, ...

) is a Scottish international

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player. He is a

lock Lock(s) or Locked may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainme ...

and currently plays at Whitley Bay Rockcliff RFC, Northumbria University Men's 1st XV and previously for

Glasgow Warriors The Glasgow Warriors are a professional rugby union side from Scotland. The team plays in the United Rugby Championship league and in the European Professional Club Rugby tournaments. In the 2014–15 season they won the Pro12 title and beca ...

Border Reivers Border Reivers were Cattle raiding, raiders along the Anglo-Scottish border. They included both Scotland, Scottish and England, English people, and they raided the entire border country without regard to their victims' nationality.Hay, D. "E ...

Edinburgh Rugby Edinburgh Rugby (formerly Edinburgh Reivers, Edinburgh Gunners) is one of the two professional rugby union teams from Scotland. The club competes in the United Rugby Championship, along with the Glasgow Warriors, its oldest rival. Edinburgh play ...

and French Second Division club Tarbes Pyrénées Rugby. He also currently coaches at Whitley Bay Rockcliff RFC

Career

Club

Hamilton was born in Dumfries and is a former pupil of Stranraer Academy. He is 6 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 15 stones 8 pounds. He was previously with West of Scotland before moving to

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

to study where he played for

Newcastle Falcons Newcastle Falcons is a rugby union team that play in Premiership Rugby, England's highest division of rugby union. The club was established in 1877 as the Gosforth Football Club. Around 1882 the club merged with the Northumberland Football Cl ...

playing 50 games for the club between 1999 and 2005. He was a replacement as they won the 2004

Anglo-Welsh Cup The Anglo-Welsh Cup (), was a cross-border rugby union knock-out cup competition that featured the 12 Premiership Rugby clubs and the four Welsh regions. It was a created as a replacement for the RFU Knockout Cup, which featured only English clubs ...

final. He then moved to

in the summer of 2005 He stayed in Glasgow for one season before moving to

. From there he moved to

. In May 2011 it was announced that Hamilton was leaving Edinburgh had agreed to join French Second Division club Tarbes Pyrénées Rugby. He left the club along with Scott Newlands and Mark Robertson. In June 2018 Hamilton took up the position of Player/Coach with Durham/Northumberland Division 2 sid
Whitley Bay Rockcliff RFC
helping the team secure promotion into Durham/Northumberland Division 1 for the first time in over 15 years and also the league record of the most points scored in a season. In December 2019 Hamilton received the first red card of his career, in a hard fought game between Whitley Bay Rockcliff and Newcastle Medicals RFC, where a total of nine cards were given including seven yellow cards and two red.

International

He represented Scotland U21 in the 2000 SANZAR tournament, starting against

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

and coming on as a replacement against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

and

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. He also represented Scottish Students, in particular starting in their game against French Students at

Inverleith Inverleith (Scottish Gaelic language, Scottish Gaelic: ''Inbhir Lìte'') is an inner suburb in the north of Edinburgh, Scotland, on the fringes of the central region of the city. Its neighbours include Trinity, Edinburgh, Trinity to the north a ...

in March 2002. He has made 17 appearances for Scotland A including appearances in February 2010. He was awarded his first Scotland cap on 19 June 2004 in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, coming on as a replacement in the second Test against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. He gained 4 further caps in the five months from June to November 2005 when he started against each of

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

, Argentina,

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

and New Zealand. He was on Scotland’s 2008 tour to Argentina but did not figure in the match squad for either Test match.

Career

Club

International

References

Further reading