2022 Heartland Championship
The 2022 Heartland Championship, was the 16th edition of the Heartland Championship, a rugby union competition involving the twelve amateur provincial unions in New Zealand.
The tournament began with a round-robin stage in which the twelve teams played eight games each, from which the top four advanced to the Meads Cup semifinals, while fifth to eighth advanced to the Lochore Cup semifinals. In both of these knockout stages the top seeds played at home against the lowest seeds, the second highest seeds played at home against the third highest seeds and the final featured the higher seed playing at home against the lower seed.
Teams
The 2022 Heartland Championship was contested by the following teams:Regular season standings
In the regular season, South Canterbury topped the standings with 39 points after winning all eight games.| Team | |||||||||||
| 1 | South Canterbury | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 368 | 122 | +246 | 7 | 0 | 39 |
| 2 | Whanganui | 8 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 352 | 142 | +210 | 7 | 1 | 36 |
| 3 | Thames Valley | 8 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 247 | 189 | +58 | 5 | 2 | 27 |
| 4 | King Country | 8 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 218 | 201 | +17 | 3 | 2 | 25 |
| 5 | North Otago | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 315 | 201 | +114 | 5 | 2 | 23 |
| 6 | Horowhenua-Kapiti | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 218 | 298 | −80 | 3 | 1 | 20 |
| 7 | East Coast | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 155 | 242 | −87 | 2 | 0 | 18 |
| 8 | Mid Canterbury | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 214 | 249 | −35 | 4 | 2 | 18 |
| 9 | Buller | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 216 | 386 | −170 | 5 | 0 | 17 |
| 10 | Poverty Bay | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 183 | 242 | −59 | 3 | 1 | 16 |
| 11 | Wairarapa Bush | 8 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 199 | 297 | −98 | 3 | 2 | 13 |
| 12 | West Coast | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 185 | 301 | −116 | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| 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
In the 2022 season South Canterbury set a record for the most points, tries and conversions. They were a class above the opposition winning their semi-final 76–9 over King Country and the final by 47–36 over Whanganui.The 47 points scored by South Canterbury in the final was also a record as was Sam Briggs individual total of 22.
Lochore Cup
finished the regular season 5th and therefore top qualifier for the Lochore Cup. However, they lost at home 15–31 to Mid Canterbury in their semi-final. Ngati Porou East Coast upset Horowhenua-Kapiti 37–30 at Levin.Ngati Porou East Coast then beat Mid Canterbury by 25–20 in the final. It was the first Lochore Cup title for Ngati Porou East Coast. They become the 6th team to have won both the Meads Cup and the Lochore Cup.
Bill Osborne Taonga
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.- 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