From grassroots rugby in the North East to being a Trailfinders centurion, scrum-half Craig Hampson has played with some of the greats of rugby.
Craig Hampson—affectionately known by many at Ealing Trailfinders as Hampo—was introduced to rugby at a young age. Growing up in different environments where legends from both rugby league and union were, Hampson has learnt from some of the best in the world of rugby. The scrum-half is one of nine Trailfinders centurions in the professional era with plenty more caps still to come.
With ambitions to become the best coach he can be and one that has already impacted numerous players in the West Midlands and Greater London, Hampo is a true servant to the game of rugby.
From the north of England to the south, to the midlands, back to the south, Craig Hampson has had a diverse rugby career playing amongst and against some of the sport’s greatest. This is Craig Hampson’s Trail So Far.
Going back to the start
Hampson is in his fifteenth season as a professional rugby player and has represented the Trailfinders crest since 2019. Yet, his rugby roots began further up the M1 at Harrogate RUFC and Ashville College.
‘I remember being really young, like four or five, when I went down to Harrogate rugby club,’ Hampson said. ‘That’s where my journey started with minis rugby.
‘All of my school friends played at Harrogate. It’s a lovely club which is great for families. It has a huge minis section. I remember being on the back pitches at the club, just throwing the ball around and loving it. I ended up doing more rugby at school after that.’
Hampson attended Ashville College, an institution that really pushed their students to be involved with a range of sports. This included rugby. Hampson took his early love of the sport from his time at Harrogate RUFC and directed it to his schoolboy rugby.
‘Rugby was more serious at school. We had a fixture calendar with games against other schools in the local area. Ashville was a proper rugby school.
‘I lived with seventy boys across two boarding houses and they all played sport of some kind. With fields close by, we could just play sport.
‘I remember being quite young and just practicing goal kicking over the post and I could never get it over as it was so high. But having access to those fields to play just kept me playing the entire time through school.’
Hampson went on to trial for regional rugby at age grade level. It was the under 16s regional festival as Castlecroft that helped put him in contention for age-grade north of England selection, a team that would face the other regions across the country.
As a result of his impact during the regional festival, his rugby talent was recognised as a teenager when he was selected for England training camps.
Crossovers with sporting talent
A close friend of Hampson’s growing up was England cricketer Jonny Bairstow who was part of the England cricket team that won the 2019 Cricket World Cup.
Hampson himself also played cricket and noted that the skills he learnt from playing at school helped him become the scrum-half he is today.
‘I wish I had enough time to still play cricket because I love it,’ Hampson said. ‘I watch a lot of cricket and grew up playing the sport with Jonny. We played Yorkshire age groups together for a short while.
‘I was a wicket keeper and I remember watching Jonny and thinking, “he’s amazing”. I was doing alright in cricket but I was better at rugby so picking rugby was an easy choice.
‘The skills of being a wicket keeper definitely helped me being a scrum-half. Both positions typically involve a lot of talking. Both positions bring energy to the teams they’re in.
‘I would talk at the batsman, trying to get in their head which is effectively the same when you’re a scrum-half and you’re trying to get into people’s ears, trying to wind people up.’
After progressing through the regional age groups, Hampson was selected as part of Leeds Academy. Situated in the heart of the city’s sporting history, Hampson shared facilities and resources with Leeds Rhinos. When Hampo was part of the academy, it coincided with Rhinos’ golden generation. Though in North Yorkshire, union is the main form of rugby, further south in the county on the M62 belt, rugby league holds sports fans captive.
From 2004-2017, Leeds Rhinos yielded eight titles in thirteen years and had over sixteen major trophies. Three names from the Rhinos golden era are well-known rugby legends: Danny McGuire, Rob Burrow, and Kevin Sinfield.
‘Rob and Kev’s changing room was just across the corridor from the academy changing room,’ Hampson recalled.
‘We used the same gym, physios, strength and conditioning coaches and other resources as the Rhinos. It was very integrated.
‘The Rhinos were legends, especially Kev and Rob. It was awesome to see what they did. Everyone copied them. If they trained in skins and no shorts, everyone would do the same.’
Leeds Academy was also led by Stuart Lancaster, another rugby legend that Hampson learnt from.
‘Lani would make us do these crazy fitness drills but it was all part of building our resilience and readying us for what was to come.
‘We would sometimes get to train with the older players when we were in the academy too. We went on loan to different clubs and found ourselves playing men’s rugby at eighteen.
‘It exposed us to a lot. It was a real baptism of fire to play men’s rugby rather than just age-grade rugby.’
The Trail to Vallis Way
From Yorkshire, Hampson ventured south to Bristol where he played for three seasons. In 2016, Hampson moved to the West Midlands to play for Wasps for three years and after that, he signed for Ealing Trailfinders in 2019 where he has since remained.
No journey is without it’s bumps in the road or a ready-made path to success. Hampson has had to overcome many challenges in his career. But those moments helped shape the person he is today.
‘The biggest challenge I’ve faced is being on the wrong side of a coach. It’s hard to deal with that if you feel like you’re doing everything right and the feedback you’re getting is to just continue as you are. But nothing changes.
‘I experienced that at Bristol for a short period of time. It weighed on me mentally and my wife realised what was happening and she was trying to help me understand the situation. To understand that you can’t change how other people feel but you can change how you feel as an individual.
‘I overcame that experience by remaining confident in myself and that I was doing good things and to keep doing those good things.
‘I’ve been fairly lucky in terms of avoiding injuries but I did have to have shoulder surgery twice when I was eighteen-nineteen. It meant I had a year out from rugby and missed out on playing a lot when I was in the England under 20s. Being part of that set-up was a big marker of moving onto professional clubs.
‘When I look back at it now, I was lucky to be kept on because there were lads in a similar position who weren’t. But I built up a lot of resilience during this time.
‘Being with Leeds at the time helped me through my shoulder injuries.’
Career highlights
After fifteen seasons in professional rugby, there were plenty of standout moments for Hampson to look back on.
‘There are two experiences from my times with other clubs that stand out to me, although we lost both games.
‘When I was at Wasps, we played against Harlequins in their Christmas fixture at Twickenham. It was pretty much sold out. I came off the bench in that game just after half-time, so I played about thirty-five minutes. The noise was amazing. The whole experience was unbelievable from the crowd to walking through the gates, being on the pitch.’
‘The second experience was when we played Toulouse in the Champions Cup. My opposite number was Antoine Dupont and Cheslin Kolbe was in their back line. Again, we lost that fixture but it was one of my best rugby experiences.
‘Those are great memories despite the scoreline.
‘At Ealing Trailfinders, the first time we won the Championship was a highlight. I want us to win it again this year.’
Life as a player-coach
As well as being a full-time professional player, Hampson loves his rugby coaching and is pursuing it as a career option after retirement.
Currently, Hampson works with Oxfordshire-based team Chinnor and alongside the scrum halves at Trailfinders Women.
In what seems like an odd plot twist, the scrum-half has also coached forwards during his time living in the West Midlands.
‘When I was at Wasps, I coached alongside Jimmy Gopperth. We coached Warwick University and Nuneaton rugby club. It was funny because I coached the forwards and Jimmy coached with the backline.
‘It was still a great experience coaching the forwards because it teaches you different things about the game.
‘I’ve done some work with Harrow School and they’ve won the Daily Mail Schools Trophy back to back and the Continental Tyres National Cup back to back. I coached them for three years and loved it there. It’s an amazing school with great history and the culture of the school was very impressive.’
‘Working with Chinnor has been really fulfilling. When I first joined, Chinnor were quite far down the table in National One. A few years later, we got better but the club turned a corner when Nick Easter joined as Director of Rugby. He helped bring that edge to the team.’
‘Chinnor are now a Champ team which is a tad awkward because it’s the same league that Trailfinders are in, but I make it work.
‘Working with the women at the club is brilliant. I have to speak completely differently as a coach with them compared to my other coaching experiences with men and young boys.’
Early afternoons when Trailfinders Women take to the pitch for skills sessions often sees Craig Hampson working with Brooke Bradley, Isla Norman-Bell, and Ella Amory on kicking technique and pulling the strings as a scrum-half.
‘Breaking down the skills of kicking for example when I work with the girls is different to when I work with boys. It’s largely because in the past there hasn’t been the platform for young girls to learn the techniques in the same way that boys have been taught.
‘When I work with the women, I see big changes quickly and their confidence grows. It’s great and so fulfilling.
‘I’ve learnt a lot about myself through coaching too, about how to deliver instructions and communicate things. What this role has helped me learn is about the importance of adaptability as a coach and learning how to communicate with different people in different ways.’
Hampson’s support networks
The centurion has achieved much in his career and he stated that his wife has been by his side through every high and low.
‘My wife Charlotte is brilliant. She’s very good at the psychological side of things. She has a good read of the emotional and empathetic side of life. We talk about a lot of things in terms of my coaching.
‘She’s very helpful at helping me understand why certain players may react in the way they do when I coach them in a certain style which is something I often miss.
‘My wife has been so supportive of my career. We’re both from the North and she’s been with me through all my movements across the country.
‘My two daughters are amazing. They understand that I’ve got to be out of the house two nights a week to coach at Chinnor. But then they come and watch me play at Trailfinders and they absolutely love it.
‘I’ve had a lot of coaches who have helped me on my journey but my most recent mentor Russell Earnshaw has been brilliant for sounding things out. He works across lots of sports including in Premier League football. He’s helped with my coaching delivery a lot and is just a great person to talk to.’
Words of advice
Lee Blackett, the current England attack coach, was involved with Leeds when Hampson was there. Blackett gave Hampson the advice to coach as diversely as possible and it’s clear that Hampson put those words of advice into action.
If Hampson could offer any words of advice to his younger self—the young boy picking up a rugby ball for the first time in the minis section at Harrogate—he said:
‘I’d probably touch on my experience at Bristol and remind myself to keep being confident, keep backing yourself to success.
‘I’d say, don’t let other people’s opinions change how you feel about how you play. You might have to take on feedback and receive criticism, sure. But it’s about backing yourself.
‘Confidence is contagious. If you’re confident in yourself, that will come across to the coaches and other players. With confidence comes reliability. People believe in you as you believe in yourself.’
What is means to be an Ealing Trailfinder
Being a Trailfinder is about a lot of things: resilience, determination, continuous self-improvement. For Hampson, being a Trailfinder is about being a winner.
‘We’re a group of people who want to win. Our culture is a winning culture. I don’t want to lose.
‘Everyone in the squad has a voice and is striving towards the same goal. To be a Trailfinder is to be a winner.’
Our Trail So Far pieces celebrate our players’ ‘Rugby Roots’ and mark our initiative of the same name. In our women’s fixture against Loughborough Lightning (29/03) and the men’s clash with Nottingham (04/04), players will pay homage to the teams where it all began for them, by wearing the club/school socks from their first sides. Supporters can join us for the celebrations at either game by purchasing tickets now.
