VICTORIA, B.C. - The Castaway Wanderers took advantage of a shortstaffed University of Victoria Vikes men's rugby team, missing 15 players, in a 38-15 win at Windsor Park in Oak Bay on a spring-like Saturday afternoon.

#Ben Thomson# led the VIkes with a try, a convert and a penalty goal for 10 of UVic's 15 points while #Willem duPlessis# also ran in a try.

Anders Munroe, from Scotland, former Vikes player Chris Thompson and Jonny Morris  were spectacular for Castaway-Wanderers on a Windsor Park pitch that blended both good wing areas to showcase the two teams' speed game and mucky, muddy middle sections which slowed fastbreaks and caused footing problems.

The Vikes were missing Nathan Hirayama, Phil Mack and Sean Duke, in Hong Kong with the Canadian national sevens team, along with 12 other players at the Canadian Under-20 camp in Shawnigan Lake. The short-staffed UVic squad brought up many players from their second team, the Norsmen, and the inexperience was evident, especially on the defensive side of the ball

Vikes head coach Doug Tate said the rotation of new players into the lineup is something the Vikes will need to get used to with reduced squads due to conflicts with other national and international competitions over the next three weeks.

"It was good experience for these guys," Tate said. "Some of them made some pretty poor defensive errors, critical errors though. Not communicating created breakdowns and allowed them to score easily. We were missing tackles and we gave them too many opportunities to score."

Castaways built an early 10-0 lead and led 16-3 at the half with the only Vikes' points coming off a Ben Thomson penalty goal which cut the lead to 13-3 late in the opening half. Wanderers made two good stops inside their own 10-metre mark to maintain their lead. They seemed to get stronger as the game went on.

"We dug ourselves an early hole, and they have brought in some very good players lately and deserve credit for the win," Tate said. "We played most of the first half in our own end and were 16-0 down after some bad early breakdowns. We never recovered."

Then duPlessis cut he lead to eight points, 16-8, taking a Thomson pass and dodging his man early into the second half.

But Morris scored his first of two tries on the afternoon and created a great angle for a Munroe convert to kill UVic's momentum and stretch the lead to 23-8. Munroe booted a penalty goal before several missed tackles and Vikes defensive miscues allowed another Wanderers player to score, putting the game out of reach at 33-8 after a Munroe converts with under 20 minutes remaining.

Thomson capped of a great series of Vikes play in Castaway-Wanderers defensive third, eventually benefiting from a good push and then quick restart off a Wanderers' foul. Thomson converted his own try and cut the lead to 33-15. But Morris made a defender miss and then outran two other Vikes to score again, stretching the lead to 38-15, capping the scoring play off with a crowd-pleasing dive over the tryline.

"I thought Ben Thomson had an outstanding game," Tate said. "We need to focus more and we will need to be better… only the Top 6 teams make the playoffs, as long as we're in that group, I think once we have everybody back we'll be in good shape."

The Vikes, who will still be missing Hirayama, Mack and Duck, next host Meraloma on Saturday March 26 at 2:45 p.m. at Wallace Field in a rematch of the 2010 B.C. Rugby Union Rounsefell Cup final.