Bays Rugby - East Coast Bays

LOST PROPERTY – LAST CHANCE!
👚👕🩳👟

As the rugby season wraps up this week, it’s your last chance to collect any lost property.

There’s a huge amount of lost items, so please take a moment this week to check the lost property shelves in the clubroom entrance and see if any of the items belong to you.

Anything left unclaimed after the season will be donated to the local shop.

THE DANSUN MEMORIAL J6 FESTIVAL – 2026

What an incredible day at Windsor Park for our inaugural Dansun Memorial J6 Festival!

A huge thank you to all 10 teams who joined us from across the North Harbour rugby community. The rugby was fantastic, but even more importantly, the day was filled with teamwork, courage, respect, positivity and great sportsmanship.

Congratulations to Silverdale Red, our 2026 Festival Champions!

A very special congratulations to Kumeu, recipients of the Dansun Spirit Award, recognising the team that truly demonstrated the values at the heart of this festival:

💚 Rugby
💚 Community
💚 Positivity
💚 Respect

Thank you to every player, coach, manager, referee, parent, caregiver and supporter who helped create such a positive atmosphere throughout the day.

We’re also incredibly grateful to the many volunteers who gave up their time to set up fields, keep scores, sound the ho**er, provide first aid, coordinate the day, and take care of all the little jobs behind the scenes. Events like this simply don’t happen without people willing to pitch in.

Most importantly, thank you to Dan’s family for allowing us to honour his memory in this way. We hope the festival reflected the loyalty, kindness, positivity and passion for rugby that Dan brought to the Bays community.

We’re so proud of what was created today and grateful to everyone who helped make the first Dansun Memorial J6 Festival such a special occasion.

Family • Community • Team First • Fair Play • Fun • Excellence

GO BAYS 🏉💚🖤💚🏉

THE DANSUN MEMORIAL J6 FESTIVAL

This Sunday, 23rd August, we come together for a very special day at Bays Rugby — the first Dansun Memorial J6 Festival, honoring our much-loved Bays clubman, Dan “Dansun” Arakawa. 💚🖤

With teams from across our union joining us, it promises to be a fantastic day of junior rugby, friendship, fun and community.

💚 First kick-off: 9.30am
🏉 10 J6 teams
🏆 Prizegiving: 12pm

We’d love to see our Bays members, friends, supporters and the wider rugby community come along, cheer on the kids and be part of this special inaugural tournament.

Most importantly, it’s a day to honour Dan and the positivity, kindness and passion for rugby that he brought to our club and rugby community.

Come down, support the teams, enjoy the rugby and help us make the first Dansun Memorial a day to remember. 💚🖤💚

Expressions of Interest - Senior Coaching Roles 2027
East Coast Bays are seeking expressions of interest for various coaching roles for the 2027 season. We are recruiting across all senior grades, U19, U21, U85, Premier 2, Premier 1.
If you are passionate about developing rugby players, creating a strong team culture and being part of the Bays Rugby community, then we'd love to hear from you. Coaches interested in a senior role are invited to submit an Expression of Interest via the link below:

https://forms.gle/nRNDtUSkJSfxLCvr6

Bays players Ryan Mead, Harry Deacon, Tony Donelley and AJ Lemalu played for the New Zealand Barbarians team yesterday in a fixture against King Country’s Paparata Rams.

The NZ Barbarians squad—selected from players across three provincial unions and 10 clubs throughout New Zealand—travelled to Taupo to take on the Paparata Rams, coming away with a 53–33 victory.

Friday night was the first game for the Harbour 2026 NPC team.

Congratulations to Jed Melvin, who led the team for the first time as this year’s Captain, and to Gus Farnan and Moses Hafoka, who both pulled on the North Harbour jersey for their NPC debuts.

Team list for tomorrow’s U21 Plate Final.

1PM | Windsor Park

Let’s get behind the team and turn the sidelines green and black!

GO BAYS 🟢⚫️🟢

After some sad news of late, we would like to inform the Bays Whanau of the passing of another ECB Old Boy, Fred “The Needle Daubney”. Fred passed away this past Monday surrounded by his whanau.
Fred was born in Christchurch, which explains his competitive nature…. then moved to Auckland with his family. He first played for Northcote then his family moved to Woodlands Cres just up the road from the old club rooms at Freyberg Park.
He joined Bays and played for them until he went to Rangitoto College where he played first fifteen rugby. Back at Bays he played for John Doherty’s under 20 side which won the Auckland comp. The next season 1977 he played for the senior reserves and did so until 1986 racking up well over 150 games for the side. The 1982 side won the Auckland comp.
During this time, he played several times for the senior side sometimes a flanker sometimes a winger and notably, a replacement ho**er on Eden Park No.1.
After the reserves Fred played on, suiting up for the Senior C Side, winning a couple of championships.
Ironically in his late 30s he did play a season of Emerging Player grade rugby. The Needle was 70kg for most of his playing days, super light for a flanker even in those days. What he lacked in size he made up for in courage, pace, and fitness. Few got past him, he could tackle like a demon and make an absolute nuisance of himself at bottom of opposition rucks. Not too shabby with the ball in hand either.
Fred loved the game, so in summer he played Touch rugby for the Famous Ikes Army and did well into his fifties Usually the leading try scorer.
He followed the ABs around the world and attended many world cups.
He also loved fishing and boating.
Early on Fred worked for the BNZ before being headhunted by Computershare where he ran the NZ side of the operation until he retired. Fred could operate at the highest corporate levels but was just as happy having a post-match beer in a smelly old block changing room.
Foremost Fred was a great family man and a great mate to many, especially Ike, Coops, Sharpie, Boon to name a few.
Fred leaves behind his wife Jenny, his daughter Debbie and son Jason and their respective whanau’s

Jenny, Debbie and Jason, ECBRFC would like to send our aroha and condolences to the Daubney Family.

Fred’s celebration of life will be held at the Milford Cruising Club, 24 Craig Road, Milford, Auckland, on the 27th of July 2026 at 1:00 pm.