Nick Killick and his men turned in a magnificent display, full of fire and commitment, to keep dreams of qualification to last eight very much alive.

And, though the whole side deserve immense credit for fighting back from 7-0 down, it was the finishing skills of hat-trick man Henry Goodburn on the wing which in the end made the difference.

Now it's all eyes on next Saturday's clash in Oxfordshire, who lost their opener to Cornwall. Success there and the group will be settled when the Cornish army invade Worthing on April 24.

Skipper Killick had backed his side to upset a home team fielding six players who had been in National League action on Saturday.

Amd he revealed after the game: "We were full of confidence. Everyone applied themselves and we didn't give them too much respect.

"We got good posession from Dave Atkin and Jez King in the lineout and the scrum was solid. We hit them on the gain line and didn't let them get behind us."

The turning point came just before half-time. Sussex losing their early momentum when they conceded a close range try to Graham Sparks on 32 minutes which Andy Lewis converted.

Then Terry Butler turned the game by charging down a Lewis kick and sending Henry Goodburn scorching 40 yards to the posts for a try which Alex Meredith goaled.

Just three minutes later, Sussex won good lineout ball, kept play alive when Andy Cook was tackled and switched back to the right, where Butler sold a flamboyant dummy to make the line.

So Sussex had a 12-7 lead at the break and they quickly extended it with a slick routine straight from the training ground.

From a scrum on the left touchline inside the home 22, outside half Jon Graham ran flat, then flipped a pass to Henry Goodburn coming in diagonally off the blindside wing, and he hared untouched to the posts for Meredith to convert.

Berkshire's reply was a series of forward bludgeons which eventually brought a try for prop Dan Davis to set up a tense final quarter.

But Sussex killed them off on 75 minutes with a bit of style. Giles Goodburn gathered a stray kick, Cook made huge inroads into the home defence and, when he supplied Henry Goodburn 15 yards out, there was only possible outcome.

Berkshire: Ballard, Erinle, Smith, Morgan, Fellows, Lewis, Phillips; Davis, J. Dance, R. Dance (Anstead 51), Moores, Vatcher, Gully, Nowak (Lamb 51), Sparks (Draper 67). Unused reps: Lapham, Wilkinson, Borchard. Yellow card: Davis.

Sussex: Cook, Cole, Butler, G. Goodburn, H. Goodburn, Graham, Meredith (Bradford 57), Knight-Barnard, Killick, Sheppard, Atkin, King, Levett (Erasmus 67), Siggs (Dinsdale 53), Wattam. Unused reps: Kingston, McDonagh, Coombe. Yellow card: Sheppard, Bradford.

Referee: Nigel Higginson (RFU).

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.