KUALA Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) showed no signs of being left out in the cold this year as they romped into the last eight of the National Inter-Club Championships (NICC) with minimal fuss.
DBKL, formerly known as Bandaraya Dragons, opened their campaign on Wednesday with a big 64-5 win over Kuala Lumpur Saracens before thumping Alor Star Blues 83-18 yesterday to emerge the top ranked team going into the knockout stages this week.
Coach Yusli Ramli, however, stressed it is still early days with much improvement needed by his charges.
"To be honest we have not yet been tested in the competition but from what I have seen, the team is coming along nicely," said the former national coach.
"Fitness-wise we still need to improve and there are also some issues we need to work on in terms of defending.
"It only gets tougher from here and I am sure we will be pushed hard by the other big teams in the tournament from the quarterfinals onward."
Fellow contenders Politeknik Merlimau and RMAF Blackhawks also emerged unbeaten in the preliminaries. Merlimau drubbed Wise Guys Old Boys 62-8 before edging Pirates 15-14 while Blackhawks downed UTP Knights (43-15) and Sikamat Gunners (62-3).
Teams are ranked according to how they fare in the two matches they play. The decider will be held on Dec 13 with both finalists set to be promoted to the Super League next season.
This is the first major local tournament that DBKL have played this year after having been banned from competition by the Malaysian Rugby Union (MRU) for pulling out of the Super League in February due to financial constraints.
They were initially suspended until 2016 but their appeal for a lighter sentence was accepted by the national body earlier this month.
Mersing Eagles won the NICC title last season after having beaten Perak Police 26-14 in the final. By Fadhli Ishak