The University of Victoria Vikings dined on fresh seafood Saturday as they chewed up the Bayside Sharks 59-15 in Canadian Direct Insurance premier rugby action on Vancouver Island.

The Sharks hopped the ferry without the services of seven starters -- almost half the starting lineup -- who were absent due to injuries or work commitments. Without the veterans, Bayside was forced to field a young team that showed its inexperience against a Vikings side loaded with international-calibre talent.

"For sure that was a factor Saturday," said Bayside coach David Benoit. "We were playing UVic, who has seven national team players who train every day and are paid by Sport Canada, so they're basically professional athletes. In order to compete against them, we'd have to have all our guys and be fit and healthy.

"No excuses, we could have played better. We didn't play as well as we could have but to go over there and get a result, we would have had to have all of our horses."

The youthful Sharks held their own early and were tied at 3-3 after 15 minutes. And then the dam burst as UVic pounded in four tries and booted a drop goal to build a commanding 30-3 halftime lead.

The second half brought more of the same as the Vikings rang up four more tries before Bayside finally touched one down behind the goal line to cut the gap to 54-10. UVic immediately scored on their next possession to run the count to 59-10 before Bayside closed out the scoring with a late unconverted try.

Peter Clifford scored one try, kicked a penalty and provided a successful convert to a total of 10 points in a losing cause.

"We expected to give them a better game than that," Benoit said. "Momentum is a funny thing and when you get off to a bad start, it sometimes snowballs on you and just gets worse. Truthfully though, with seven nationally-carded players, they're very good and if they didn't beat us with that lineup, I would really wonder about them."

The Sharks will try to put the bad memories from their ill-fated Island cruise behind them when they take on the UBC Old Boys Ravens in Vancouver next Saturday (April 9). Benoit said most of the veterans will be back for a contest that could make or break the Sharks' playoff hopes.

"We had a bad weekend and now we have to move on," Benoit said. "We have to put this behind us and look at the big picture, which is if we can win this week against the Ravens, we're in the playoffs. The Ravens are a good team with a couple of national team players but we'll be ready for them."

In other action, the Bayside first division side fell 36-12 to their UVic counterparts prior to the premier match.

The third division Sharks turned in an outstanding performance in a 17-17 tie with Kats. Bayside started the game with just 12 players but insisted on playing shorthanded to avoid being saddled with a default loss. Despite the manpower disadvantage, the Sharks scored a try in the final minute of play to steal a tie and two points in the standings.