LET'S end the speculation now. Kurtley Beale will be playing at five-eighth for the Western Sydney Rams in the Australian Rugby Championship this season, making the race for the NSW No.10 jersey a three-horse race.

There had been much discussion this week after Beale was named at fullback by Rams coach Brian Melrose, but the selection was precautionary only, because of a death in Beale's family.

Beale's grandfather passed away recently and Melrose named the prodigious talent at fullback because he wasn't sure how much time the playmaker would spend with the team during the week.

Beale played at five-eighth for the Rams in their 21-13 loss to Perth Spirit on Friday, and Melrose said he was one of the team's best performers.

"Kurtley played at 10 for us on Friday and will play there for us, there is no real conjecture about that," Melrose said. "That's something I read earlier in the week and just failed to correct. He needs to play there and that is what we'll give him."

With Sydney Fleet pivot Daniel Halangahu making clear his wish to don the Tahs' No.10 jumper in next year's Super 14, and Central Coast Rays playmaker Sam Norton-Knight vying for the same position, NSW coach Ewen McKenzie will be able to judge each player's case on their ARC performances.

Another interesting decision by Melrose was his selection of speedster Lachlan Turner at fullback. If the young prospect shines in that position, he may well fill the Waratahs role left vacant by London-bound Peter Hewat.

After the first round of the new tournament, the clubs say they have much more clarity on how to deal with the eight law variations, used for the first time in Australia, during rest of the season.

The new laws demand far more running and bring about fewer stoppages compared with the IRB laws used at international level.

"Our guys were quite leg-sore after the game, just with the pace of it and the amount of running they had to do," Fleet coach Col Jeffs said. "We might have to spend a bit more time doing running exercises this week."

Rays coach John McKee was disappointed his side gave up a handy lead to lose to the Fleet 25-19 at North Sydney Oval, and said their attack needed work: "Overall in our attack we've got some work to do," he said. "We've got to mix our play up a little bit so the opposition don't quite know where the attack is coming from."

Melrose admitted the Rams were lucky to come so close in Perth against the favourites for the title: "From the Spirit's point of view, they have been together as a team much longer than we have," he said. "For some of the guys it was their first week with the team.

"We were under pressure, we did well to stay in the game. They are a very good team, it gives us a clear message of where the team is. There's no excuses, the Spirit were better than us on the night. The truth is we were under pressure for most of the game and if the other team had won by more you wouldn't have argued."

East Coast Aces held off an amazing Ballymore Tornadoes comeback to score a tense 27-21 victory. The Aces looked to have the Queensland derby won at 27-0 after Reds prop Rodney Blake scored with half an hour left, AAP reports.

But Blake threw an intercept pass for winger Elia Tuqiri to score soon after, and centre Blair Connor crossed two minutes later to bring the match, at Carrara, to life. When winger Ant Sauer crossed, the visitors had scored three tries in five minutes.

With Aces five-eighth Quade Cooper sin-binned, fringe Test lock James Horwill was set to score from a charge down before Test fullback Chris Latham saved the Aces.

The Melbourne Rebels pulled off a major upset against the Canberra Vikings, winning 32-27 at Olympic Park in an entertaining, nine-try affair.