Max Malins is a Bristol Bearsrugby player, currently on loan from Saracens. He primarily plays at fly-half. He also has played with England U20s, where he won a world title, and various academy and other junior teams. He went to Felsted school and as of 2018 is studying a business and finance degree at the university of Hertfordshire.
Domestic
School
Malins' first participation in rugby was at his local rugby club, Saffron Walden, aged 6. 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. Malins attended Felsted School from a young age, and his rugby highlights included reaching the final of the NatWest Schools 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 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.
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. His performance during the 2015/16 season aided significantly in returning the Old Albanians to National One, via the play-off mechanism.
Saracens
Malins made his first team debut in late 2016, coming on as a substitute in the Anglo-Welsh Cup. 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. He has scored 104 points in these games. However while his try rate has been high, his place-kicking success rate has been fairly low. 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. He agreed a further contract extension which would see him and spend a season on loan at Bristol Bears along with fellow teammate Ben Earl.
International
U18
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. Malins was selected for the 3-month tour to South Africa by the U18 England teamin the summer of 2015. The 3-month tour, as well as a number of regional games, had 3 primary games: the French U18 team and two games against South Africa U18.
U20
Malins participated, primarily at fullback, in England U20s winning an U20 title in Manchester in 2016 and at fly-half in reaching the final again in 2017, before being defeated by New Zealand. He was particularly noted by 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.
