2018 Heartland Championship

The 2018 Heartland Championship, was the thirteenth edition of the Heartland Championship, a rugby union competition involving the twelve amateur provincial unions in New Zealand.

The tournament included a round-robin regular season in which the twelve teams played eight games each. The top eight teams from the regular season then advance to the semifinals: The teams ranked first to fourth play for the Meads Cup The teams ranked fifth to eighth play for the Lochore Cup.

The bottom four teams are eliminated.

Teams

The 2018 Heartland Championship was contested by the following teams: Team Super Rugby partner HometownBullerCrusadersWestportEast CoastHurricanesRuatoriaHorowhenua-KapitiHurricanesLevinKing CountryChiefsTaupōMid CanterburyCrusadersAshburtonNorth OtagoHighlandersOamaruPoverty BayHurricanesGisborneSouth CanterburyCrusadersTimaruThames ValleyChiefsPaeroaWairarapa BushHurricanesMasterton WanganuiHurricanesWanganuiWest CoastCrusadersGreymouth

Regular season standings

In the regular season, Whanganui topped the standings with 39 points after winning all eight games. West Coast was deducted 6 points for fielding an ineligible player, the prop Tyler Morgan-Kearns. This meant that instead of coming 6th with 22 points they were dropped to 9th place with 16 points and therefore missing the Lochore Cup.

Team1Whanganui 8800331113+21870392South Canterbury8602341151+19071323King Country8602303229+7261314Thames Valley 8503274233+4171285Horowhenua-Kapiti8404253251+262246Wairarapa Bush 8404212195+1741217North Otago 8404213209+422208Mid Canterbury8305225233−852199West Coast8404228241−13511610Buller 8206223289−66531611Poverty Bay 8206193302−109621612East Coast800897447−350112

Meads Cup qualification Lochore Cup qualification

Finals

In the Meads Cup the top placegetter plays at their home ground against the fourth team while the second placed team plays at home against the third. In the Lochore Cup the fifth placegetter plays at their home ground against the eighth team while the sixth placed team plays at home against the seventh. The winning semi-finalists then meet in the respective finals for each Cup, played at the home-ground of the team ranked highest in the regular season.

Meads Cup

2018 was the first year that King Country made the Meads Cup semi-finals. They were the last of the twelve provinces to have achieved a "top 4" Meads Cup semi-final place. However, in their semi-final they could not compete with South Canterbury, going down 21–58 at Timaru.

Thames Valley had also not previously made the top 4. Although they only qualified 4th after the regular season, Thames Valley won their Meads Cup semi-final away to the top-ranked Whanganui and followed up with another away win over South Canterbury at Timaru to capture the Meads Cup for the first time.

Lochore Cup

Horowhenua-Kapiti who finished the regular season fifth and therefore top qualifier for the Lochore Cup accounted for Mid Canterbury, the previous year's Cup winner, in their semi-final. They then beat Wairarapa Bush by 26–23 in a closely fought final. It was the first Lochore Cup title for Horowhenua-Kapiti.

2018 Heartland Championship

Bron en licentie