Otley’s loan players from leaders Leeds Carnegie have, as they were earlier this season, been prevented from playing against their parent club in Boxing Day's National League One derby at Cross Green.

“I have had to bite the bullet and it is a pain,” confessed Otley’s director of coaching Peter Clegg, “but what do you do?

“Have them miss two games of the season or not have them available for all the rest of the campaign?”

The absence of players such as fly half Adam Greendale, centre Luther Birrell, second row Tom Denton, flanker Jacob Rowan and full back Peter Wackett means there is an even greater likelihood of the visitors notching a runaway win.

Clegg admitted: “Leeds are heavy odds-on favourites but we will just have to rely on the players we have had for several years, such as Paul Mooney, Kyle Dench and, hopefully, Ian Shuttleworth.

“First and foremost, however, it needs to be a good day for Otley with a good crowd and no worries like overnight frost.”

Struggling Otley, who lost 58-14 at Headingley in September, were beaten 48-16 at Esher last Saturday.

Clegg said: “We didn’t get any decisions all afternoon but it was a grossly disappointing performance.

“We had three sin-binnings but the annoying thing was that there was nothing between the teams.”

Leeds, who defeated Exeter 18-16 in a top-of-the-table clash at Headingley on Sunday, have had one day’s less recovery time and are expected to field a much-changed squad because of the short turnaround.

However, any thoughts of complacency have been scotched by club captain Rob Rawlinson.

The former Bradford & Bingley loanee said: “Any talk of us taking it lightly couldn’t be further from the truth. We know Otley will be doing their utmost to beat us.

“That is why the coaches have planned for this moment and picked two very strong sides for over the Christmas period.

“Hopefully, we will have the same fantastic support just down the road at Otley as we had against Exeter.”

The match against the Chiefs attracted 5,463 – Leeds’ third biggest crowd ever outside the top flight – as Carnegie extended their lead to eight points.

In their promotion-winning season of 2006-07, 5,310 watched the Christmas fixture against Otley and 7,105 were at the title-decider against Rotherham Titans.

A crowd of 5,509 fans watched Leeds beat Worcester in 2001 to book promotion to the top division for the first time in their history.