Maxim Hugo Malins (born 7 January 1997) is an English professional

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 who plays as a

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces both Lift (force), lift and drag while moving through air. Wings are defined by two shape characteristics, an airfoil section and a planform (aeronautics), planform. Wing efficiency is expressed as lift-to-d ...

for

Premiership Rugby Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition, consisting of 10 clubs, and is the top division of the English rugby ...

club

Bristol Bears Bristol Bears (officially Bristol Rugby Club or Bristol Rugby) are a professional rugby union club based in Bristol, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded as Bristol Football Club in 18 ...

and the

England national team Team England usually refers to the name under which athletes representing Commonwealth Games England compete. England team or Team England may refer to: *Commonwealth Games England *England national football team *England cricket team *England nat ...

. He will join

Saracens file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century History of Germany, German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to ...

ahead of the 2025–26 season.

Early life

Malins' first participation in rugby was at his local rugby club, Saffron Walden, aged 6. His rugby then moved to his new club,

Bishop's Stortford RFC Bishop's Stortford is an English rugby union team based in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire. The club runs five senior men's sides, a ladies' team, O2 touch rugby section and the full range of mini and junior teams, from under-6's to under-18's ...

, where he remained playing until the age of 16. While at Bishop's Stortford he participated in the winning of 7 age-group tournaments. Malins attended

Felsted School Felsted School is a co-educational independent school, independent boarding school, boarding and Day school, day school, situated in Felsted in Essex, England. It is in the British Public school (UK), public school tradition, and was founded i ...

from a young age, and his rugby highlights included reaching the final of the

NatWest Schools Cup The National Schools Cup (currently known as the Continental Tyres Schools Cup for sponsorship reasons) are a set of annual England, English schools' rugby union cup competitions, with the U18 Cup being the main competition. The finals of the Cup ...

U18 Vase. 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. 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. As of 2018, Malins was studying a business and finance degree at the

University of Hertfordshire The University of Hertfordshire (UH) is a Universities in the United Kingdom, university in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. The university is based largely in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Its antecedent institution, Hatfield ...

Club career

Old Albanians

During his time in the Senior academy Malins held dual registration with

Old Albanian Albanian (endonym: , , or ) is an Indo-European language and the only surviving representative of the Albanoid branch, which belongs to the Paleo-Balkan group. It is the native language of the Albanian people. Standard Albanian is the offi ...

. He played 19 games for them with a high scoring rate of 11 points per game. His performance during the 2015/16 season aided significantly in returning the Old Albanians to

National League 1 National One, up until 2023 known as National League 1 and previously known before September 2009 as National Division Two), is the third of three national leagues in the domestic rugby union competition of England. It was known as Courage Lea ...

via the play-off mechanism.

Saracens

Malins made his first team debut in January 2017, coming on as a substitute against the

Scarlets The Scarlets () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams and are based in Llanelli, Wales. Their home ground is the Parc y Scarlets stadium. They play in the United Rugby Championship and in European Professional Club Rugby c ...

in the

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 ...

. 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 Owen Andrew Farrell (born Owen Andrew O'Loughlin, 24 September 1991) is an English professional rugby union player who plays as a Fly-half (rugby union), fly-half for Premiership Rugby club Saracens F.C., Saracens. He was the England captain fr ...

and Alex Lozowski. 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%). 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. In March 2019, Malins scored all nine points for Saracens in their 9-23 defeat to the

Northampton Saints Northampton Saints (officially Northampton Rugby Football Club) is a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. The club plays in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby union. It was formed in 1880 as "Northampton St. ...

in the final of the 2019 Premiership Rugby Cup. He helped Saracens win the Premiership title in 2023, scoring a try in the final as Saracens defeated

Sale Sharks Sale Sharks are a professional rugby union club from Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom. Its team play in Premiership Rugby, and have been in England's top division of rugby union continuously since 1995. Originally founded in 1861 as ...

Bristol

He agreed a further contract extension which saw him join

on loan until the end of the 2020-21 season along with fellow teammate Ben Earl. In October 2020 Malins scored a try as Bristol defeated

Toulon Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department. The Commune of Toulon h ...

in the final of the

European Rugby Challenge Cup The EPCR Challenge Cup is an annual rugby union competition organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the second-tier competition for clubs based in European leagues behind the European Rugby Champions Cup. From its inception i ...

. During his spell at Bristol Malins has played primarily at fullback and has a high try scoring rate of 11 tries from 11 starts (+2 appearances off the bench) as of 21/04/21. Malins returned to Bristol ahead of the 2023-24 Premiership Rugby season.

Return to Saracens

In February 2025, Saracens announced he would re-join the club from Bristol Bears following the conclusion of the 2024–25 season.

International career

England U18

Malins' England Under-18 debut game occurred in February 2015, where he scored a try. He also participated in the victory against

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

shortly afterwards. Malins was selected for the 3-month tour to South Africa by the U18 England team in the summer of 2015. 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.

England U20

Malins participated, primarily at fullback, in England winning the

2016 World Rugby Under 20 Championship The 2016 World Rugby Under 20 Championship was the ninth annual international rugby union competition for Under 20 national teams. The event was organised in England by rugby's governing body, World Rugby. Twelve nations took part in the tourname ...

hosted in Manchester. He scored tries against

in the pool stage and in the semi-final 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 ...

. He started at full back in the final against

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. The following year he was a member of the squad that completed the grand slam in the

2017 Six Nations Under 20s Championship The 2017 Six Nations Under 20s Championship, was the 10th series of the Six Nations Under 20s Championship, the annual northern hemisphere rugby union championship. Wales were the defending champions. The competition was won by England, who complet ...

and then featured at fly-half as England reached the final of the

2017 World Rugby Under 20 Championship The 2017 World Rugby Under 20 Championship was the tenth annual international rugby union competition for Under 20 national teams. The event was organised in Georgia by rugby's governing body, World Rugby. Twelve nations played in the tournament, ...

, before being defeated by

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. 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. He acted as the primary place-kicker in the latter competition for the majority of his games with a 72% success rate.

England

In October 2020 he was called up to the senior

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

squad by head coach Eddie Jones. 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 The Autumn Nations Cup was a rugby union competition held in November and December 2020 in place of the usual Autumn rugby union internationals, Autumn internationals series typically held in the same period each year, as many teams were avoidin ...

against

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. He also came off the bench in the final of that competition as England defeated

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

in extra-time to win the tournament.

Career statistics

List of international tries

''As of 12 February 2023''

References

External links

*
Max Malins, Ultimate Rugby
{{DEFAULTSORT:Malins, Max 1997 births Living people English rugby union players England international rugby union players Saracens F.C. players Bristol Bears players Rugby union fly-halves Rugby union fullbacks People educated at Felsted School Alumni of the University of Hertfordshire Rugby union players from Cambridge 2023 Rugby World Cup players