Ollie Thomas misses his first game of the season today as league leaders Moseley risk resting his nagging knee injury for the trip to relegation threatened Harrogate.

Fifty-four points and 11 clubs separate this afternoon's combatants, a gap deemed suitably wide enough to give back-up Greg Macdonald his first National Two start at fly-half this season.

Thomas is the division's leading scorer and is worth his weight in gold for his goal-kicking prowess alone, yet the Billesley Common side are reasonably confident that the trip to Yorkshire should not come down to penalties and drop-kicks.

If it does, director of rugby John Beale, believes Macdonald will still be able to keep his side's collective head above water and, he maintains, the solicitor should also impose his rather more structured style on to a match in which Moseley will be desperate to avoid slipping up.

"Greg is a bit older and more experienced in that he has been playing fly-half all his life. Ollie has only done in for a couple of years," said Beale.

"He will bring to the party a more mature game and more structure to our play. With Ollie you get what you get, sometimes his coaches, team mates and the officials are as surprised by what he does as the opposition.

"What we will miss is his goalkicking, Greg can do it but he is not at the same level as Ollie."

In many respects Thomas can consider himself lucky to have got this far into a hugely successful season without missing a game.

His free-running form of last year has yet to reveal itself and but for the team's continued success and his ability to convert penalties from inside his own half, he might have been given an opportunity to rest his aching limbs earlier.

Not that, according to Beale, Macdonald has exactly been knocking the door down. "Greg has not played particularly well in some of the second team games but he's not had much rugby. He has, though, been unlucky not to get a chance before now.

"It's not an easy game to come into. We would much rather be playing someone at home where it's more comfortable."

Beale is conscious of the fact that today's test will be rather more mental than the physical and aptitude examination they passed in beating Esher last week.

That 35-21 victory over their nearest challengers put them four points clear at the top with eight games to go. It also confirmed them as the best team in the division.

But no one is allowed to look any further than their noses at the moment so due diligence will be paid to Harrogate, despite their position second bottom of the division.

"The biggest danger is that we assume the hard work has been done," he said. "The temptation is to look at the table and assume we are playing against a lesser team but when we played them down here earlier in the season they embarrassed us with a couple of tries they scored.

"They have a terrific record with bonus points which shows they can score enough tries to be of concern."

It also shows they frequently lose by less than seven - an accomplishment Moseley will not want to see repeated today.