VICTORIA, B.C. - The University of Victoria Vikes men's rugby team has endured three tough weeks, playing shortstaffed, resulting in three consecutive losses.

Today, the sixth-place Vikes (1-4) tackle the fifth-place Bayside Sharks (2-3), a team sitting just three points ahead of them in the Premier League standings, but welcome back three star players.

The Vikes are clinging to the sixth and final playoff berth with Burnaby only three points below them in the standings. Having dropped their last three games, the Vikes will welcome the return of national sevens stars Phil Mack, Nathan Hirayama and Sean Duke. The Sharks have showed well this season relying on strong performances from Peter Clifford and Brodie Henderson. Clifford sits second in Premier League scoring with 62 points, while Henderson is tied for top try scorer with seven.

UVic has also missed a number of players in game action due to other camps, including junior national team (U-20) tryouts two weeks ago in Shawnigan Lake in their loss at Castaway Wanderers. With three games remaining, including the April 2 contest, the Vikes control their own destiny.

Other games on April 2 include James Bay at Meraloma, UBCOB Raves at Castaway Wanderers and Burnaby Lake at Abbostford.

Mack, Duke and Hirayama returned earlier this week from their Hong Kong sevens event with Canada. The national side defeatd Japan 33-12 to win the Bowl Championship at the 2011 Hong Kong Sevens, part of the International Rugby Board Sevens Series.

The Bowl competition is for teams who finished second place in their respective pools. Canada finished the round robin portion of the tournament 2-1 and went on to win all three games on the final day to take the title for the second straight year.

Canada built a 19-5 lead in the first half over the Japanese as Chauncey O'Toole, Neil Meechan and Duke all crossed for tries.

In the second frame the Canadians pulled away with Duke opening the second half with his second of the game and John Moonlight scoring as the hooter sounded to give Canada the 33-12 victory and capping a weekend that saw just one loss to Australia (26-24) against five wins over the three days.

Earlier in the day Canada had to hold on for a win against France 12-5.

France opened the scoring in the first minute of the first game- putting the Canadian team on the back foot early.

In the fifth minute however, Newfoundland's Ciaran Hearn found a seam and galloped over sixty metres for a try under the posts, with Mack, the team captain, adding the conversion to knot the score 7-7.

In the second half Chauncey O'Toole hit for his third try of the tournament, striding from nearly half way to touch down left of the posts. The conversion was missed and the game became one of keep away from France for the final two minutes.

As the clock evaporated Canada had back pedaled across its own line - touched down. The French appealed for one more restart, but the referee blew for full time and the Canadian win.

In the semifinal Canada had its work cut out as Wales built a 12-5 lead in the first half. It was Moonlight providing the second half heroics as the speedy forward burst for two tries in the 4th and 7th minutes after coming on as a second half substitute, to turn the game on its ear for the 24-17 win.

New Zealand won the Cup championship beating England 29-17 to take the overall lead in the series with three events to go.