Melbourne Rebels brace for life on the road after Super Rugby AU loss to ACT Brumbies

It comes after they dropped their Super Rugby AU opener to the ACT Brumbies to the tune of 31-23 at Canberra Stadium on Saturday night.

Brumbies coach Dan McKellar says his side could have been more clinical after the visitors clawed their way back into the contest with a steely resolve they will rely heavily on in the coming months.

The Rebels look set to shift their home game against the Queensland Reds to Brookvale Oval on Friday night, with the squad likely to stay in Canberra, where they were based for a week leading into round one, until Wednesday.

Brumbies captain Allan Alaalatoa says everyone involved in rugby should be thanking the Rebels and Western Force "for the sacrifices they're making to be away from their families to make this comp run".

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Victoria is experiencing a major spike in COVID-19 cases which has forced Victorian-based sporting clubs across Super Rugby, AFL and NRL out of their home state.

"We're trying to work through all of that stuff at the moment. We were supposed to play the [Queensland] Reds at home next week which won't be happening. The plan is to move us into NSW," Melbourne coach Dave Wessels said.

"The challenge is for those guys who have kids, that's fine for probably two, three or four weeks, but if it's going to be up to the end of the comp, we need to find a way to get guys connected to their kids.

"There is a realism among the team that a lot of people out there are going through much tougher things. The boys are pretty level-headed about it.

"I was pretty proud of the guys actually, we've been through a bit over the past 14 days and we didn't get to train a lot last week because we were prevented from training and had to travel and get ourselves sorted."

There is a fear life on the road could grow difficult, as it has for the New Zealand Warriors in the NRL after they were forced to move to Australia to keep the competition alive.

But Rebels skipper Dane Haylett-Petty says the excitement of playing their first game in 120 days after the original Super Rugby season was shut down got them through the past fortnight with ease.

"We've just enjoyed each other's company, it's not an easy thing to do. It's also an opportunity for us to spend a bit of time together, so we've enjoyed that," Haylett-Petty said.

"It's probably not too hard at the moment, we're just enjoying being back playing rugby. Who knows what will happen in the future.

"Everything is up in the air at the moment, it's been easy to just focus on the game throughout the week and we haven't looked too far ahead. Now we've got a six-day turnaround ... we've got to get onto the next job."

The Brumbies have been heavily favoured to claim the Australian iteration of Super Rugby and they shot out of the blocks to take a 24-6 lead in the second half before Melbourne fought back.

McKellar was rapt with his side's first outing since March but says there remains plenty of room for improvement.

"When we were up there by 18 points, could we have put it to bed? Possibly," McKellar said.

"We haven't played in four months, so if you had have said to me 'you'll get five points' three hours ago, I would have taken it for sure. Can we get better? Of course we can. Were there some good things out there? Yep.

"Our defence was excellent. Overall, we didn't look threatened a whole lot if our discipline was good, our discipline has got to improve."