VICTORIA - The final game of the season turned out to be an apt metaphor for the University of Victoria Vikes men's rugby program's 2016-17 season.

Down players due to national team commitments and injuries all year, the Vikes fought hard for every point they earned in a season that saw them barely miss out on the CDI Premiere League Playoffs.

With their season on the line against Burnaby Lake on Saturday, a depleted Vikes squad once again fought tooth and nail, pushing the top team in the league to their limit before falling 41-26 at Wallace Field.

"With the guys we had missing today I thought we played really well," said Vikes head coach Doug Tate. "A lot of our second team players were in there and a lot of guys were a way but we were right in that game right until the end.

"We score again and we would have had a bonus point so we had a lot of chances to win that game."

Burnaby Lake entered the matchup undefeated at 6-0-0 with a positive point differential of 136. After getting on the board first, Burnaby watched Jonathan Lorimer and Carson O'Sullivan put up tries and Fergus Hall convert for the Vikes to make it 14-5.

The visitors would eventually pull ahead by a score of 24-14 at half but fifth year Kaprieli Vataiki helped Victoria keep close in the second half with some key offence. However, it wouldn't be enough for the underdog Vikes. 

While the visitors managed to put up over 40 points, Tate was happy with the way his team matched up.

"It sort of shows that even thought it's the top team in the league, on a given day anybody can knock them off," said Tate of the tight matchup. "But at the end of the day, they're pretty good at scoring points. They just keep coming at your and they're physical."

Saturday's game marked the final premiere league match for many of Tate's graduating players. The 2017-18 season will see a large amount of turnover as some top talent moves on from the storied program. 

For Tate, this class of graduating players is of particular significance, as his son Morgan Tate will be moving on for the 2017-18 season. But he didn't hold back when asked to describe the impact of the entire class post-game.

"Just awesome," said Tate.

SCORING SUMMARY
                 1st    2nd    F
UVIC        14     12      26
BLRC       24     17      41

SCORERS 
Kaprieli Vataiki (2T), Jonathan Lorimer (1T), Carson O'Sullivan (1T), Fergus Hall (2C), Guiseppe Du Toit (1C)