READING Raiders racked up a club-record 86-4 victory over a depleted Southampton Spitfires side on Saturday.

The 15 tries and 13 conversions all but assured the Raiders of a top-two finish in the West of England League’s Pool B.

For the second home game out of three, the visitors arrived at Berkshire County Sports Club with just 13 players and like the last time, when Reading beat Portsmouth 50-10, the Raiders came away with a new club record win.

In a taste of what was to come, Reading scored on their opening two attacking sets; first, prop, Kerry O’Sullivan barging over from close range before Brad Walters ran through a large gap to extend the lead.

The next try came when impressive loose forward Alex Dorliac went on a rampaging run and played in Raiders captain, John Boucher, for an effort under the posts, Boucher kicking the third of 11 conversions afterwards.

Dorliac next provided a defence-splitting pass for wing Ben Mitchell’s first try on the left, and full back Luke Schofield finished off a move on the right for Reading’s fifth try.

Hooker Lewis Chick powered over from close range next and from the restart, Dan Gyles collected the ball, made 10 metres and found Schofield in space who ruthlessly exploited Southampton’s ragged defensive line to run 70 metres to the line.

Mitchell grabbed his second try from a great run on the left to inflict further punishment on the Spitfires, the score 48-0 at half time.

Sam Voight dotted down for a debut try after Boucher’s grubber was not dealt with by the covering Southampton full back before Schofield secured his hat-trick with a length-of-the-field effort after a Spitfires player knocked on in his own half.

The Spitfires refused to give in and scored a try on the left before Mitchell emulated Schofield’s three tries, latching on to another Boucher grubber.

Stand-off Jake Findlay then set up Chick for a try through the middle with a superb offload and followed up with the first of his two conversions.

Man-of-the-match Si Kalafusz was the next to score, capitalising on George House’s strong run and offload.

Reading then finished the game with two long-range tries; first, O’Sullivan showing the pace of a wing to round Southampton’s full back on his 40-metre sprint and finally, Chick’s 60-metre dash to the line to become the third Raider to register a hat-trick.

Reading head coach Karl Temata said: “Leading up to the match, we focused on getting back on track after our loss to Oxford. We knew we needed to complete more sets and take smarter options when in good field position.

“We also worked on our defence and line speed, and it was very pleasing to see these points we worked on at training pay off. Credit must be given to Southampton who made the trip with no reserves so, with this in mind, we need to keep building for the match against Portsmouth.”

The Raiders head to Portsmouth to play the Seahawks this Saturday (2.30pm), with a win guaranteeing progression to the West of England League’s Super Six competition.