Bitter rivals have gone backwards as they battle for play-offs

For a place which lives and breathes rugby league, there is a very real prospect that one of its two clubs will again not make the end-of-season denouement – play-off football.

Whoever succeeds will undoubtedly rejoice at the other’s expense and could well go on and make a significant impact; for the loser, it will be a long, hard and unbearable winter to contemplate.

With three regular fixtures remaining, Hull FC sit in the crucial eighth place, rivals Hull KR are a point adrift in ninth as the tension mounts.

In reality, the pressure of knockout football has already begun for these two clubs, who realise one slip and an entire season’s work could amount to nothing. The fact the bitter enemies are battling between themselves only adds to the pressure.

Rewind six months to the start of the campaign, and neither club would have contemplated being in such a position. Each has taken backward steps.

Granted, Hull missed the play-offs in 2008 and 2009 but last season saw them revive with a sixth-place finish following the arrival of stellar operators Craig Fitzgibbon, Mark O’Meley and Sean Long. With Joe Westerman now on board, they were expected to push on further.

Likewise, Rovers, who, after their 2009 high of fourth, had dipped to seventh last term knew, with the capture of exciting Australian stand-off Blake Green and – dare I say it? –- Willie Mason, they, too, would surely challenge further.

Everyone knows what happened next. The farce over Mason’s signing blighted progress as has uncertainty over coach Justin Morgan’s future.

In the west of the city, the Black and Whites will point to more injury woe for the talismanic Long as the root of their inconsistencies and, while only the top four clubs have superior defences, their failure to rack up victories over the teams above them is clearly a problem.

Against the top seven, they had earned just one win – an Easter success at Warrington – ahead of last Friday’s emphatic 40-8 triumph over Catalan.

However, the play-offs are all about current form and timing; the impressive manner of that convincing rout suggests if Richard Agar’s side make the top eight they could cause problems.

Hull head to Wrexham on Sunday to face Crusaders, long-term wooden spoon contenders although they have rallied since the announcement they are pulling out of the competition.

Then Hull visit Castleford, who could yet get dragged into the mire. Battered and broken following their Challenge Cup semi-final loss against Leeds, and a comprehensive vanquishing at Headingley a week ago, Terry Matterson’s men are just one point above Hull with a derby at Wakefield tomorrow looking increasingly pivotal.

Hull’s final fixture is a home date with Warrington who – given leaders Wigan are involved at Wembley and the title-rivals meet each other the following week – could be in a position where a KC win will secure the League Leaders Shield.

Meanwhile, Rovers, who have been interviewing Australian candidates via Skype to replace Morgan next season, with South Sydney Rabbitohs assistant Kurt Wrigley, Penrith Panthers caretaker coach Steve Georgallis and Parramatta Eels No 2 Matt Cameron believed to be in the frame, also know their fate is still in their own hands.

If they win all three games they will qualify with either Hull or even Castleford making way.

However, their run-in starts with the visit of an increasingly potent St Helens squad, who swept aside Huddersfield.

Morgan must then take his men to Perpignan, where the stifling late summer heat and Catalan’s eagerness to secure a top-four berth, could be overpowering.

If, however, Hull KR can pick up two wins, it will set up an intriguing last day when the opponents are... Castleford.