Bristol's woes continues

Hill has been in his position at cash-strapped Bristol since 2003 but appears to have thrown in the towel after allowing his assistant, Paul Hull, to take charge for the trip to Sale.

In Friday's other game Newcastle produced an outstanding second-half display to beat Saracens 13-9 and record a third consecutive Premiership victory for the first time since 2005/06.

Bristol suffered their 12th defeat from 14 Premiership outings this season and are nine points behind second-bottom Worcester, who now have two games in hand on the West Country side.

Hill did not travel to Stockport for this game and the highly-rated Hull is now the clear favourite to be appointed as his successor.

Daniel Ward-Smith was the only try scorer for Bristol as Adrian Jarvis kicked the rest of their points while Eifion Roberts, Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, Luke Abraham and Neil Briggs all went over for Sale with Charlie Hodgson kicking 12 points.

In the North East Sarries enjoyed the better of a scrappy first period, which contained glimpses of quality from both sides, although the visitors looked more cohesive.

On a crisp evening at Kingston Park, a soft pitch, bearing battle scars before kick-off, did not help either side as Sarries went into the break 9-3 up.

However, the hosts raced out of the blocks second time round and wing Tom Rudd's try and fly-half Tom May's boot made the points safe.

Glen Jackson kicked all of Saracens points.