Melbourne skipper Stirling Mortlock sees the rewards rather than the risks of playing Richard Kingi at fullback, believing it could be his best position.

The 21-year-old halfback has been named to wear the No.15 jersey for the Rebels Super Rugby clash with the Hurricanes in Melbourne on Friday night.

The switch was forced due to injuries to the Rebels' two fullbacks, Mark Gerrard (shoulder) and now Julian Huxley, who was ruled out this week with a groin problem.

But Mortlock believes Kingi, who has played Australian Sevens and is on the fringe of Wallabies selection, may be even better suited to fullback than halfback, where he has had limited game time this season behind Nick Phipps.

"He's a very skillful and talented player and he's always been a No.9 but there's a number of positions he could play at this level.

"From our perspective, his skill set is actually best suited at fullback.

"He's very good under the high ball, he's got very good aerial skills, he's got great one-on-one ability to beat an opposition and he's actually got a very big boot."

Mortlock said the former Red would probably be a target for the Hurricanes but said he was up to the challenge.

"I think he'll relish the opportunity," the former Test skipper said.

"I don't think he's played that much rugby there but I think he'll do a really good job for us."

The Rebels have ridden huge highs and lows during the season, the last coming with a 53-3 shellacking by Queensland last weekend.

So far this season they have rebounded well and Mortlock hopes that trend continues, particularly in front of their home crowd at AAMI Park where they have mostly impressed.

He said the players were upbeat this week at training despite the massive loss.

"We were really disappointed but the attitude and mind-set's been really positive.

"As a group we're pretty disappointed with how inconsistent we've been but I guess because we're a new team ... it probably exacerbates things."

Hurricanes coach Mark Hammett kept faith with the starting 15 beaten 41-17 by the Blues.

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