Macca Springer: five tries in one game to equal Super Rugby's record, then a start in the 2025 final

On 15 March 2025 Macca Springer started his first Super Rugby game of the season, recalled from the Crusaders' development side because Chay Fihaki was being rested. By full-time at Apollo Projects Stadium in Christchurch he had scored five tries in a 55-33 win over the Western Force, equalling Sean Wainui's record for the most tries by one player in a Super Rugby match. Three months later, on 21 June 2025, he started on the left wing in the final as the Crusaders beat the Chiefs 16-12 for their 13th title. The wing from Waimea College had already scored eight tries in eight games for the New Zealand Under 20s.

Waimea and Waimea Combined

Springer, whose given name is McKay, was born on 29 March 2003 and is Nelson-born, RugbyPass reported. He is a junior of the Waimea club, the club of Ireland wing James Lowe and Highlanders favourite Marty Banks, and he went to Waimea College near Nelson.

His school rugby started late. In 2018, in Year 11, he was told he was too young under the competition's rules to play for the First XV, a rule that changed the following year, RugbyPass reported. Waimea College did not always have the numbers for a First XV of its own, and in 2020 it combined with eight other schools, with players coming from as far away as Tākaka and Murchison, to play in the Crusaders region's First XV championship as Waimea Combined.

That side won half its games in 2020, including one over Marlborough Boys' College, and beat St Bede's College 17-10 in a game in which Springer scored all three of their tries and a conversion. At the end of the season he was awarded the Philip McDonald Memorial Medal as the outstanding player of the 2020 UC Championship, the Crusaders record, a medal won before him by Leicester Fainga'anuku and Mitchell Drummond.

Tasman

In 2021 Springer played for the Crusaders Under 20 side and was named in the Tasman squad as a development player. His Tasman debut came off the bench against Waikato at Trafalgar Park in Nelson on 24 September 2021, Wikipedia records, and his first try followed in his next game, a 51-14 win over Southland at Lansdowne Park in Blenheim on 3 October 2021. At 18 he came off the bench in the 2021 Premiership final, RugbyPass reported, which Tasman lost 23-20 to Waikato at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton on 20 November 2021.

In 2022 he was Tasman's leading try scorer, with eight in nine games. He scored twice against Canterbury at Lansdowne Park on 26 August 2022, twice in a 36-26 win over Manawatu at Arena Manawatu in Palmerston North on 2 September 2022, and twice against Auckland at Eden Park on 17 September 2022. In 2023 he added five more, including two in a 27-15 win over Otago at Trafalgar Park on 4 August 2023.

His four-try night for Tasman came on 23 August 2025 at North Harbour Stadium, where he scored four tries, three of them inside the first 24 minutes, in a 43-19 win over North Harbour. He finished 2025 with eight tries in nine games. In 2026 he played five NPC games and scored a try in every one of them, the last in a 50-33 win over Waikato at FMG Stadium Waikato in Hamilton on 3 October 2026. By the end of 2026 he had played 50 games for Tasman and scored 28 tries.

New Zealand Under 20

The Crusaders gave Springer a year in their academy in 2022, as a development player, and in July 2022 he went to the Oceania Under 20 Championship at Sunshine Coast Stadium in Queensland with a New Zealand side that went through the tournament unbeaten. He scored a try in all three of their wins: 74-5 against Fiji on 1 July 2022, 32-9 against Argentina on 5 July 2022 and 69-12 against Australia on 10 July 2022.

In 2023 he went to the World Rugby Under 20 Championship in South Africa and kept the run going. He scored a hat-trick in a 62-19 win over Japan at Paarl Gymnasium on 4 July 2023, and he finished the tournament with five tries in five games, level with three other players as the championship's top try scorers, Wikipedia records. That made eight tries in eight games for the New Zealand Under 20s.

The Crusaders

Springer became Crusader No 269 on the opening night of the 2023 season, on 24 February 2023 against the Chiefs at Orangetheory Stadium in Christchurch, alongside fellow debutant Christian Lio-Willie. The Chiefs won 31-10. A year earlier, he said later, he had been "sitting in those stands as a fan", and he called running out "a pretty surreal moment". He played nine games and scored four tries in 2023, a season shortened for him by his Under 20 campaign, as the Crusaders won a seventh title in a row. In 2024 he started on the wing in the Crusaders' first game under Rob Penney, a 33-29 loss to the Chiefs at FMG Stadium Waikato on 23 February 2024, and scored three tries in nine games.

Five tries

He began 2025 in the Crusaders' development side, Top South Now reported, with seven tries from his first 18 Super Rugby games. Then Fihaki was rested for the round five game against the Western Force on Saturday 15 March 2025, and Springer started on the left wing.

The Force led three times in the first half and the Crusaders went to half-time only 20-18 up. Springer's first try came from a break and kick by Braydon Ennor, James O'Connor, on at first five, set up his third with a dummy, and his fourth came from his own chip and chase, according to the match reports on super.rugby and rugby.com.au. Sevu Reece added three tries on the other wing as the Crusaders won 55-33. Five tries tied Sean Wainui's record for the most tries in a Super Rugby game.

He was left out of the 23 for the next match, against the Blues at Eden Park in Auckland on 22 March 2025, then added to the bench when Ennor was injured. He came on in the second half of the Crusaders' 42-19 win and scored again, his sixth try in two games, Top South Now reported. Later in 2025 the Crusaders extended his contract to 2028. "I've always wanted to be a Crusader," he said. "Dave Havili is someone I really look up to," he added, pointing to the Tasman and Crusaders midfielder who had made the same journey.

The 2025 final

When Chay Fihaki was ruled out of the final with concussion, Springer was named on the left wing. "Macca has been training hard behind the scenes," Penney said, Planet Rugby reported. He played the full 80 minutes on 21 June 2025 as the Crusaders held the Chiefs to two tries and won 16-12 in front of 17,000 at Apollo Projects Stadium, with Rivez Reihana kicking 11 points and Codie Taylor scoring the Crusaders' only try. Springer finished the season with eight tries from eight games.

In 2026 he played five Super Rugby games and scored one try. Across his four seasons with the Crusaders he has played 31 games and scored 16 tries, 80 points, figures on which Wikipedia and RugbyPass's match data agree.

Where he is now

Springer is one of six outside backs in the Crusaders' 38-man squad for 2027, alongside All Blacks Will Jordan and Chay Fihaki, Johnny McNicholl, Maloni Kunawave and Kurtis MacDonald, under new head coach Scott Hansen. He has not played a Test.

Career at a glance

Tasman and Crusaders figures are from Wikipedia (updated 3 October 2026), which agree with RugbyPass's match data and with Wikipedia's match-by-match NPC records. Under 20 figures are from Wikipedia's tournament records.