Fun, Ahoy: Play The Game!

Registration for the 2025-26 rugby and netball seasons is open now and training kicks off in late August. Find out why you want to join the DB Pirates. Mervyn Black reports You would be hard-pressed to have spent any significant amount of time in Discovery Bay and not heard of the DB Pirates. The club’s eye-catching green and black strip is carried by adults and children alike through the plaza, on buses and, of course, on the rugby pitch and netball court. Fresh off a big 2024-25 season that saw plenty of success and with the backing of sponsors Cathay Cargo, Figos, Three Sheets and Coopers, the DB Pirates are building steam ahead of the upcoming 2025-26 season. A club built with rugby as its foundation, the DB Pirates cater to rugby players from four years of age through to seniors, while their netball section runs from seven-year-olds up to ladies. After building nicely since the Covid-19 pandemic, the DB Pirates are looking to forge ahead with both their existing sports and new offerings. “We’ve come through Covid stronger than most of the other clubs in Hong Kong and that is a fantastic achievement,” opens new DB Pirates chairman Chris Pearce. “There was a lot of expat drain on the south side of Hong Kong and there are clubs there that were heavily impacted by it. We’ve managed to maintain about 75-80 percent of our membership, whereas other clubs were down by over 50. “This club survived Covid better than many and now we want to build on that and take it forward because we are in a great position. We are reaching out to new members, getting out into the community, getting new sponsors and looking at ways we can do more community engagement. We are putting the Pirates out there as the premier Lantau club.” Chris, a 30-year Hong Kong resident, is well-placed to tackle his new role: he’s been with the DB Pirates for the past nine years, and all his kids have played netball and rugby for the club. “I’ve been basically running a financial firm over that period so I’ve got a good idea about business strategy and sponsorship and I want to bring that to the Pirates,” he adds. Part of growing the DB Pirates is rebuilding the club’s dragon boating and hockey sections, with director of rugby Simon Tasker confirming new volunteers are very much welcome. “We did have hockey a couple of years ago, we had a very strong hockey team actually, and we had a very strong dragon boating section, but because a lot of that was operated through volunteers, when Covid hit we weren’t able to retain that knowledge,” Simon opens. “We will be rebuilding this season with a view that next season we will be able to offer more sports to the community. We want to provide the opportunity for people to get fit and healthy, and enjoy a good variety of sports.” The DB Pirates’ rugby section runs from mini rugby into youth rugby and onto men’s seniors, while there is also a women’s touch rugby team for local domestic helpers, with club trainings taking place at the Discovery College and DB North Plaza pitches most weekends. “As of last year, we were close to 500 members across the three main rugby sections. We’ve got a very large junior section which is probably going to be about 75-80 percent of that number. That ranges all the way from under-5s to under-12s boys and girls,” says Simon. “Beyond 12, we then split into youth, which is divided into under-13 boys, under-14 girls, under-16 boys and under-16 girls.” Where it gets interesting for young DB Pirates is that the club has a strong relationship with Kowloon Rugby Club. “As part of our agreement with the union, because we don’t have a Premiership side, we need to be able to find a player pathway for our older kids. Anyone that graduates the under-16 programme, be it male or female, gets absorbed by Kowloon,” Simon explains. “The idea is to foster those players in a Premiership setting, so they can then either progress into Premiership or Premiership A. From a bigger perspective, it allows Hong Kong China Rugby, the governing body for rugby in Hong Kong, to have an idea of who is coming through the system outside of the traditional big six clubs. “We are very much a provider for the football clubs, the Valleys and the Kowloons – we don’t have a Premiership men’s side,” Simon adds. That means that while the DB Pirates seniors play at a level suitable for varying ages, abilities and fitness levels, those up-and-coming talents with the desire to strive for higher honours – like ex-DB Pirates and current Hong Kong players Alessandro Nardoni and Liam Doher ty – have a pathway to do so. While the DB Pirates’ membership base has historically been a very international group made up largely of DBers, Simon is pleased to confirm a recent uptick in local players and members from across Lantau. “We’re getting recognised outside of DB, which is nice. This year, for the first time in a long time, we’ve been able to recruit and attract more local talent. We’re a product of our environment, which is traditionally expat, so we don’t really have a lot of local guys join us,” he says. “But this year we’ve picked up half a dozen or so Chinese lads from the local schools in Pui O. It’s been really good for us. The good work that everyone is doing is resonating beyond our borders, which is nice.” Registration for the 2025-26 rugby and netball seasons is open now and training kicks off in late August, with Simon – who has been involved with the club for 14 years and himself played rugby for Hong Kong – having a simple message for anyone considering taking the plunge. “If you’re new to Hong Kong or new to DB, this is a great way to meet people. We centralise everything around the community, so you’re interacting with people on a daily basis and you’re eating in the local restaurants,” he says. “It’s a really nice way to get yourself plugged in. “We have been so successful because we are so community-based. The rugby is based around family – mums and dads getting involved. A lot of the dads who play for us are or were coaches. It’s very sociable, there are no barriers. It’s seriously social rugby and we’re your one-stop shop for rugby in Lantau.” Simon wants to see growth across the club, and he is equally focused on older players. The DB Pirates seniors – who play in the Hong Kong China Rugby Men’s Championship League 3, the fifth tier of senior rugby – are in the middle of a run of sustained success, with the team coming off a big win last season. “Four years ago, we were Prem A grand champs finalists. Then Covid hit and there were all the austerity measures but now we’ve been promoted two consecutive seasons,” says Simon. “We won three actually – there was a mini Covid league we won, the next year we won the league which meant we went up a division but we lost the grand champs. This year we didn’t win the league, which was good for us because the winner of the league earns automatic promotion, but we won the grand champs. “In terms of the quality of rugby, it’s pretty decent,” Simon concludes. “Obviously we’re all amateurs, so we are not going to be going anywhere beyond where we are at the moment, but it’s certainly a lot fun.”