VICTORIA, B.C. – The University of Victoria Vikes men's rugby team stood to a hard fought win of 19-15 over Burnaby Lake RC on their home field on Saturday, Nov. 15.
 
Second-year Vike Guiseppe duToit led the team scorings with four penalty kicks overall, while successfully converting teammate Crosby Stewart's lone and opening try for UVic 30 minutes after kickoff.
 
Brian Murphy replied with a try for Burnaby Lake to set the scores at 10-5 at half-time, UVic in the lead. The first half otherwise went mostly uneventful with defences standing tall for both teams, who each denied attempted tries close to the touch-in-goal line.
 
"It was a real physical game from the beginning," said Doug Tate, Vikes men's rugby head coach. "Our biggest challenge was to match up to the Burnaby Lakes and the Vikes held them up better than we did in previous faceoffs."
 
It was a relentless defensive affair for the rest of the second half, with a series of physical tackles at play. 
 
Burnaby Lake made a furious comeback attempt in the last 20 minutes of the game, with substitute Giuseppe Laudisio scoring in the corner. Teammate Stu Vincent followed up with a try to trim UVic's lead to 16-15, but the visitors missed converting it to turn the outcome in their favour.
 
DuToit successfully kicked his fourth penalty just minutes to the final whistle blow, contributing to the Vikes victory of 19-15 with a total of 14 points.
 
Up next, the Vikes will face off the Rowers on Nov. 22 at 2.30 p.m. on UVic's Wallace Field.
 
SCORING SUMMARY
 
UVIC:
Guiseppe duToit (4 penalties, 1 convert)
Crosby Stewart (1 try)
 
BLRC:
Brian Murphy (1 try)
Giuseppe Laudisio (1 try)
Stu Vincent (1 try)