Top five columns of 2019: Dylan Cleaver

Dylan Cleaver. Photo / Ash Boyd

As we say goodbye to 2019 and welcome in 2020, it's a good time to catch up on the very best of the Herald columnists we enjoyed reading over the last 12 months. From politics to sport, from business to entertainment and lifestyle, these are the voices and views our audience loved the most. Today it's the top five from sports writer Dylan Cleaver.

This World Cup has lost all credibility

In this column from October, Dylan Cleaver set out to sort fact from fiction - showing what was true and what was not after round three of the Rugby World Cup. From Typhoon Hagibis to numerous controversial card calls, there was plenty to discuss.

Ranking the 2019 Rugby World Cup crises that could strike the All Blacks

With the Rugby World Cup looming, the All Blacks winning the Webb Ellis Trophy for a third time was still on the cards - but there were a number of potential crises potentially standing in their way. Dylan Cleaver ranked the three biggest concerns at the time.

A coach everybody wants for the All Blacks, and a stadium nobody needs

With the next All Blacks coach yet to be chosen, former captain Reuben Thorne - not generally known for making waves - came out against the selection process. He decried the lack of players' voices on the selection panel,. However, coming from a time when players were seen and not heard, it might have surprised him to learn players did in fact have a say in the matter.

The contrasting tales of All Blacks Ardie Savea and Rieko Ioane

The contrasting trajectories of Ardie Savea and Rieko Ioane should provide both inspiration and a cautionary tale for our best and brightest rugby talent, Cleaver wrote in September. While Savea was arguably the most dynamic player in All Blacks' victory over South Africa in Yokohama, Ioane did not make the matchday squad. This lead All Black great Sean Fitzpatrick to ask on his ITV pre-match show: "Who'd have thought that six months ago?"

Black Caps have lost their ODI cricket identity at the worst possible time

In February, Cleaver wrote that the Black Caps seemed to have either lost confidence in the way they play the ODI game, or were struggling to find a style that suits them. Unless there's a don't-show-your-cards-yet masterplan at play, the Black Caps appeared to have turned themselves inside out to become a mediocre one-day unit on the eve of the sport's biggest tournament.