You're forgetting that our halves pairing last year was Munster and DCE with DCE arguably being our best player in the games he played... DCE won't be getting dropped. Ponga will be on the bench with hunt likely to be the one that misses out (unless they opt to play hunt at hooker and drop macca, which is possible based on his performance last year).
Watson. I personally thing Ponga should have stayed at fullback with watson and pearce in halves. Ponga had some lethal kick returns and got them out of trouble a lot. Moving him to 6 doesn't make sense to me when their spine is still goign to consist of the same players either way, and he is young and fit... Not like his body is slowing down so better off having someone fitter / faster at fullback. Him moving to 5/8th is a Ponga decision because it will increase his chance of playing in the Rugby World Cup for NZ. Brown is too scared to say no to him.
He won't be fullback. Munster will be moved to fullback to make room for Morgan.
He blew his chance to be honest. Would need to be 1-2 injuries for him to get a look in. Or for us to get absolutely belted in game 1.
