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.
Teams
The 2018 Heartland Championship was contested by the following teams:| Team | Super Rugby partner | Hometown |
| Buller | Crusaders | Westport |
| East Coast | Hurricanes | Ruatoria |
| Horowhenua-Kapiti | Hurricanes | Levin |
| King Country | Chiefs | Taupō |
| 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 |
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.| Team | |||||||||||
| 1 | Whanganui | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 331 | 113 | +218 | 7 | 0 | 39 |
| 2 | South Canterbury | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 341 | 151 | +190 | 7 | 1 | 32 |
| 3 | King Country | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 303 | 229 | +72 | 6 | 1 | 31 |
| 4 | Thames Valley | 8 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 274 | 233 | +41 | 7 | 1 | 28 |
| 5 | Horowhenua-Kapiti | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 253 | 251 | +2 | 6 | 2 | 24 |
| 6 | Wairarapa Bush | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 212 | 195 | +17 | 4 | 1 | 21 |
| 7 | North Otago | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 213 | 209 | +4 | 2 | 2 | 20 |
| 8 | Mid Canterbury | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 225 | 233 | −8 | 5 | 2 | 19 |
| 9 | West Coast | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 228 | 241 | −13 | 5 | 1 | 16 |
| 10 | Buller | 8 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 223 | 289 | −66 | 5 | 3 | 16 |
| 11 | Poverty Bay | 8 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 193 | 302 | −109 | 6 | 2 | 16 |
| 12 | East Coast | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 97 | 447 | −350 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 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.