# 2024 Heartland Championship

The 2024 Heartland Championship, was the 18th 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 (first and fifth) played at home against the lowest seeds (fourth and eighth), the second highest seeds (second and sixth) played at home against the third highest seeds (third and seventh) and the final featured the higher seed playing at home against the lower seed.

## Teams

The 2024 Heartland Championship was contested by the following teams:
| Team | Super Rugby partner | Home ground(s) |
| Buller | Crusaders | Westport |
| East Coast | Hurricanes | Ruatoria |
| Horowhenua-Kapiti | Hurricanes | Levin |
| King Country | Chiefs | Taupō, Taumarunui, Te Kuiti |
| 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, South Canterbury topped the standings with 40 points after winning all eight games.
| Pos. | Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | BP | Pts |
| 1 | South Canterbury | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 327 | 214 | +113 | 8 | 40 |
| 2 | Whanganui | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 383 | 199 | +184 | 7 | 31 |
| 3 | Thames Valley | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 348 | 190 | +158 | 7 | 31 |
| 4 | Mid Canterbury | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 297 | 215 | +82 | 6 | 30 |
| 5 | King Country | 8 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 276 | 179 | +97 | 8 | 28 |
| 6 | Horowhenua-Kapiti | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 244 | 289 | −45 | 6 | 22 |
| 7 | East Coast | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 212 | 236 | −24 | 4 | 20 |
| 8 | West Coast | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 228 | 265 | −37 | 8 | 20 |
| 9 | North Otago | 8 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 240 | 201 | +39 | 6 | 14 |
| 10 | Wairarapa Bush | 8 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 246 | 393 | −147 | 5 | 13 |
| 11 | Buller | 8 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 142 | 402 | −260 | 2 | 10 |
| 12 | Poverty Bay | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 190 | 350 | −160 | 6 | 6 |
* 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 2024 season South Canterbury once again went unbeaten through the regular season. They scored 327 points, down from 341 the previous year and significantly lower than the 2020 season's record of 491. However, South Canterbury were upset in semi-final 16–17 by their neighbours Mid Canterbury.
In the other semi-final Thames Valley travelled to Cooks Gardens and beat Whanganui by a comfortable 38-15.
The final was played at Boyd Park with the home team Thames Valley beating Mid Canterbury 37-29.

### Lochore Cup

King Country finished the regular season 5th and therefore top qualifier for the Lochore Cup. They won their semi-final in a close victory 34-31 over Ngati Porou East Coast. In the other semi-final Horowhenua-Kapiti the 6th placegetter in the regular season were upset, losing to West Coast by 51-52 at the Levin Domain.
The Lochore Cup Final was another close battle with King Country edging West Coast by 46-44.

## Bill Osborne Taonga

Whereas in 2023 Ngati Porou East Coast retained the Bill Osborne Taonga in all four challenges, in the 2024 season only one out of six challenges was successfully defended. Ngati Porou East Coast lost the first challenge from Buller. Buller then lost the Taonga to King Country who then lost it to Thames Valley. Thames Valley in turn lost it to Whanganui who managed to win their first defence against Wairarapa Bush. However in their second defence Whanganui lost the Taonga to King Country.
* 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

## 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.The 2024 winner was Alekesio Vakarorogo (Whanganui).