"In my first couple of seasons I had really great players in front of me; Doddie Weir, Stuart Grimes, and Mark Andrews too. But last year my game was improving and I felt i was up there with the best, but sometimes they just went with the more experienced players."
However, it is also well known that there were conflicts between his club at Newcastle and the Scottish national squad, with Rob Andrew vetoing his and Grimes' departure for one of Matt Williams' training squads. Craig confirms "That's probably one of the reasons I left too; I didn't like getting caught in the middle."
Looking ahead to this new season, Craig is confident about Glasgow's potential. "When you look at the results last season, often we were a score away from the opposition. There's not a lot between teams. The coaches here are big on the little things, and that's important. We go over how many objectives we've achieved in a game, how many unforced errors we made. These things can be turning points in matches."
"If we get the basics right, we'll kop a lot of teams. If we can get our defence sorted, winning decent ball, we've got great backs to give it to, great pace. We (the forwards) need to produce the lineouts and scrum ball to service them; we've got a huge pack, but we need to use it effectively."
"It takes the pressure off players. You don't want to be scared of making a mistake; you should be able to play rugby off the cuff. You're not always going to get good scrums, good lineout ball, so you need good players who can take it upon themselves to try and make something , to take some responsibility."
Playing in a new league is also something Craig is anticipating. "People in the past have probably seen it (the Celtic League) as a lower standard than in England, but it's got some of the best players in the world, like Brian O'Driscoll, so you can't say it's not a great league to play in."
Craig is perhaps best placed to comment on last season's "Fortress Scotland" policy. "You can't keep all the top talent in Scotland, because there aren't enough teams. What's the point in having a good guy sitting on the bench up here? There's no reason why we can't keep track of players not playing in Scotland - as a coach, that should be your job. I don't though go along with the idea that he (Matt Williams) couldn't communicate with the players. We had a lot of discussions with the coaching staff about what they wanted. That was beneficial, but a few of the boys were saying he had an excuse for everything; whenever he talked to the media, he would say the boys didn't play well because of this or that. It might have been more honest if he'd said "They didn't play well, and I don't know why."
But as a final word, Craig is focused on the here and now in Glasgow, and will let his career as a Scottish internationalist follow naturally. "I just want to really concentrate on playing really well for Glasgow at the moment, and if that allows me to play for Scotland, I'll relish it."