Max Malins

Malins' first participation in rugby was at his local rugby club, Saffron Walden, aged 6.[3] His rugby would then move to his new club, Bishop's Stortford RFC, where he would remain playing until the age of 16. While at Bishop's Stortford he would participate in the winning of 7 age-group tournaments.[3][4]

Malins attended Felsted School from a young age, and his rugby highlights included reaching the final of the NatWest Schools Cup U18 Vase.[4] While playing a school game for Felsted he was identified by Saracens' scout Matt Davies, before being invited to join the Saracens junior academy at 17.[3] Whilst at school Malins was also a promising cricketer and field hockey player, representing the school 1st XI at both sports from the age of 15 and top scoring in the 2014 Cape Town international Hockey Festival.[5]

During his time in the Senior academy Malins held dual registration with Old Albanian. He played 19 games for them with a high scoring rate of 11 points per game.[1] His performance during the 2015/16 season aided significantly in returning the Old Albanians to National League 1, via the play-off mechanism.[6]

Malins made his first team debut in January 2017, coming on as a substitute against the Scarlets in the Anglo-Welsh Cup.[7] Since then he has played 29 games across all competitions, with a particular focus in the Anglo-Welsh and international breaks, which caused the absence of Owen Farrell and Alex Lozowski.[8] He has scored 104 points in these games. However while his try rate (7 in 29) has been high, his place-kicking success rate has been fairly low (63%).[1]

With reasonable success in his games in the 17/18 season, and an increased likelihood of both Saracens' first choice fly-halves missing games due to international duty, Malins was offered and accepted a two-year contract extension, to the end of the 2019/20 season.[8] In March 2019, Malins scored all nine points for Saracens in their 9-23 defeat to the Northampton Saints in the final of the 2019 Premiership Rugby Cup.[9]

He agreed a further contract extension which would see him join Bristol Bears on loan until the end of the 2020-21 season along with fellow teammate Ben Earl.[10] In October 2020 Malins scored a try as Bristol defeated Toulon in the final of the European Rugby Challenge Cup.[11]

Malins' England Under-18 debut game occurred in February 2015, where he scored a try. He also participated in the victory against Scotland shortly afterwards.[4] Malins was selected for the 3-month tour to South Africa by the U18 England team in the summer of 2015.[12] The 3-month tour, as well as a number of regional games, had 3 primary games: the France U18 team and two games against South Africa U18.[12]

Malins participated, primarily at fullback, in England winning the 2016 World Rugby Under 20 Championship hosted in Manchester. He scored tries against Scotland[13] in the pool stage and in the semi-final against South Africa.[14] He started at full back in the final against Ireland.[15] The following year he was a member of the squad that completed the grand slam in the 2017 Six Nations Under 20s Championship[16] and then featured at fly-half as England reached the final of the 2017 World Rugby Under 20 Championship, before being defeated by New Zealand.[17][18] He was particularly noted by England U20 head coach Ian Vass as being a major figure in their success, acting as a calmer figure around which the team could bond.[17] He acted as the primary place-kicker in the latter competition for the majority of his games with a 72% success rate.

In October 2020 he was called up to the senior England squad by head coach Eddie Jones.[19] On 14 November 2020 Malins made his Test debut as a second-half replacement for Ollie Lawrence in their opening fixture of the Autumn Nations Cup against Georgia.[20] He also came off the bench in the final of that competition as England defeated France in extra-time to win the tournament.[21]