About Heartland

The Heartland Championship is a semi-professional New Zealand provincial rugby competition, known for sponsorship reasons as the Bunnings Warehouse Heartland Championship, it is a domestic rugby union competition in New Zealand.

It was founded in 2006 as one of two successor competitions to the country’s former domestic competition, the National Provincial Championship (NPC).

The country’s 27 provincial teams were split into two separate competitions. Thirteen of the original teams, plus one merged side created from two other teams, entered the new top-level professional competition, the Air New Zealand Cup.

The remaining 12 sides from outside the main centers of New Zealand entered the new Heartland Championship, whose teams contest two distinct trophies, both named after legendary New Zealand players:

    • The Meads Cup, the more prestigious trophy, named after Sir Colin Meads.
    • The Lochore Cup, named after Sir Brian Lochore.
    • Bill Osborne Taonga , named after Bill Osborne.
    • Ian Kirkpatrick Medal from 2022
Iconic All Blacks Bill Osborne and Ian Kirkpatrick have had newly created Bunnings Warehouse Heartland Championship awards named after them New Zealand Rugby (NZR) has announced.

A new challenger trophy for the Bunnings Warehouse Heartland Championship teams will be unveiled in Gisborne this Sunday where Poverty Bay and Mid-Canterbury will contest the Bill Osborne Taonga for the first time during the tournament’s fifth and sixth playoff. 

In 2021, a new challenge trophy for the Heartland Championship teams was announced, named after 16-test All Black Bill Osborne. It would follow similar rules to the Ranfurly Shield.

The Osborne Taonga was designed and created by Otaki-based Kaiwhakaairo (carver) and artist Jason Hina (Ngā Rauru Kiitahi, Te Atihaunui ā Pāpārangi, Ngāti Apa, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kauwhata and Ngāti Raukawa) and fellow carver Bill Doyle, who created the Tū Kotahi Aotearoa trophy.

The 5th ranked team from the 2021 Heartland Championship regular season, Poverty Bay, was the inaugural winner of this trophy after beating the 6th placed Mid Canterbury by 33 points to 26. Poverty Bay therefore earned the right to defend the trophy in the 2022 Heartland Championship season.

Rugby’s newest taonga, which will be governed by similar rules as the famous Ranfurly Shield, is an acknowledgement of current NZR President Bill Osborne (Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi), a player who emerged from Whanganui to play 48 matches including 16 Tests and become one of the All Blacks finest midfielders during a career that stretched from 1975-1982. 

Poverty Bay was awarded the Bill Osborne Taonga through being the 5th ranked team in the 2021 regular season, earning the right to defend it in the 2022 season. They successfully defended the Taonga against Wairarapa Bush but then lost it to Ngati Porou East Coast who defended it twice.

2022 RESULTS

  • August 27 – Poverty Bay 30 Wairarapa Bush 26
  • September 10 – Poverty Bay 10 Ngati Porou East Coast 12
  • September 17 – Ngati Porou East Coast 29 West Coast 27
  • October 1 – Ngati Porou East Coast 20 Wairarapa Bush 16

2023 RESULTS

  • August 19 – Ngati Porou East Coast 19 Mid Canterbury 8
  • August 26 – Ngati Porou East Coast 38 North Otago 29
  • September 9 – Ngati Porou East Coast 31 Poverty Bay 11
  • September 23 – Ngati Porou East Coast 29 King Country 11

2024 RESULTS

  • 17 August – Ngati Porou East Coast 11 Buller 13
  • 24 August – Buller 27 King Country 54
  • 31 August – King Country 18 Thames Valley 23
  • 7 September – Thames Valley 14 Whanganui 16
  • 21 September – Whanganui 56 Wairarapa Bush 17
  • 5 October – Whanganui 17 – King Country 34

And from 2022, the Bunnings Warehouse Heartland Championship Player of the Year award will become the Ian Kirkpatrick Medal in recognition of the legendary former All Blacks Captain, loose forward and current NZR Patron. 

Kirkpatrick, who played 113 matches including 39 Tests for the All Blacks, leading the team on 43 occasions, also got his representative rugby start with a Heartland Union, for the combined Poverty Bay-Ngāti Porou East Coast side after leaving Auckland’s Kings College. 

Ian Kirkpatrick Medal

Since 2022, the Heartland Championship Player of the Year award has been awarded a medal named after former All Blacks captain Ian Kirkpatrick.

Winners of the Medal are:

  • 2022 Sam Parkes (East Coast). Other finalists were Siu Kakala (South Canterbury) and Semi Vodosese (Whanganui).
  • 2023 Siu Kakala (South Canterbury). Other finalists were Stuart Leach (Poverty Bay) and Alekesio Vakarorogo (Whanganui)
  • 2024 Alekesio Vakarorogo (Whanganui)

The Competition

The Heartland Championship is held annually, and starts in August. Rugby teams from 12 provincial unions compete.

    • 4 points for a win
    • 2 points for a draw
    • 0 points for a loss
    • 1 bonus point for scoring 4 or more tries, regardless of the final result
    • 1 bonus point for a loss by 7 points or less

Points scored reverted back to normal scoring in 2019 after trialing a different system in 2018

      • Try = 5 points
      • Penalty Try = 7 points (no conversion attempt required)
      • Conversion = 2 points
      • Penalty goal = 3 points
      • Dropped goal = 3 points

Prior to 2011

Prior to the 2011 Competition, the tournament was conducted in three rounds. This was similar to the structure of the 2006 Air New Zealand Cup, but that competition collapsed its first two phases into one effective in 2007. At the start of Round One, the 12 teams would split into seeded pools of six teams each, Pool A and Pool B. Seedings were also based on positions in the previous year’s competition. During Round One, each team would play the other teams in its pool once. All teams would have either two or three home fixtures, with the three highest seeds in each pool at the start of the season receiving the extra home fixture.

All teams would advance to Round Two. The top three teams in each pool advance to the Meads Cup, while the bottom three teams enter the Lochore Cup.

Round two saw each team in both the Meads and Lochore Cups playing the three teams that it did not play during Round One. The three teams with the most competition points in Round One would play two home fixtures and one away, while the other three teams would play one home fixture and two away.

All competition points from Round One carried over to Round Two, and the competition points earned in both rounds determined the teams that advanced to the semifinals of each Cup in Round Three. The top four teams in the Meads and Lochore Cup competitions at the end of Round Two advanced to the semifinals.

Round Robin

This round sees the 12 teams playing 8 games each. 1st to 4th on the ladder at the end of the 8 weeks will play off for the Meads Cup, while 5th to 8th play off for the Lochore Cup.

Finals

The Meads and Lochore Cup winners are both determined in four-team single-elimination tournaments. The semifinal match-ups are seeded 1-4 and 2-3, with the higher seed receiving home field advantage. The highest surviving seed hosts each Cup final.

Heartland Championship teams

A map of current NZRU union boundaries, including teams competing in both the Mitre10 Cup and Heartland Championship

The Heartland Championship is contested by the following teams:

Province Investec Super Rugby Partner Hometown
Buller Crusaders Westport
East Coast Hurricanes Ruatoria
Horowhenua-Kapiti Hurricanes Levin
King Country Chiefs Taupo
Mid Canterbury Crusaders Ashburton
North Otago Highlanders Oamaru
Poverty Bay Hurricanes Gisborne
South Canterbury Crusaders Timaru
Thames Valley Chiefs Paeroa
Wairarapa Bush Hurricanes Masterton
Wanganui Hurricanes Wanganui
West Coast Crusaders Greymouth

Prior to 2006, East Coast, North Otago, Poverty Bay and Wanganui competed in Division Two of the NPC, alongside Counties-Manukau, Hawke’s Bay, Manawatu, Nelson Bays and Marlborough (all promoted to the Air New Zealand Cup, Nelson Bays and Marlborough merging to form Tasman). The remaining teams competed in Division Three of the NPC.

Winners

 

Year Meads Cup Winner Lochore Cup Winner Bill Osborne Taonga
2006 Wairarapa Bush  Poverty Bay —
2007  North Otago Poverty Bay —
2008  Whanganui Poverty Bay —
2009  Whanganui North Otago —
2010 North Otago Wairarapa Bush —
2011  Whanganui Poverty Bay —
2012 East Coast  Buller —
2013  Mid Canterbury  South Canterbury —
2014  Mid Canterbury  Whanganui —
2015  Whanganui  King Country —
2016  Whanganui North Otago —
2017  Whanganui  Mid Canterbury —
2018  Thames Valley  Horowhenua-Kapiti —
2019 North Otago  South Canterbury —
2020 No Competition due to Covid-19 Bill Osborne Taonga
2021  South Canterbury  Whanganui Poverty Bay
2022  South Canterbury East Coast East Coast
2023  South Canterbury West Coast East Coast
2024  Thames Valley  King Country  King Country

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