2014 Heartland Championship

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2014 Heartland Championship

Date	23 August 2014 (2014年08月23日)–26 October 2014 (2014年10月26日)[1]
Countries	New Zealand New Zealand
Final positions
Champions	Mid Canterbury (Meads Cup) Wanganui (Lochore Cup)
Runner-up	Buller (Meads Cup) North Otago (Lochore Cup)
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The 2014 Heartland Championship was the ninth edition of the Heartland Championship, a rugby union competition involving the twelve amateur rugby unions in New Zealand. The tournament involved a round-robin stage in which the twelve teams played eight games each and then 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 had the higher seed play at home against the lower seed.

The 2014 Heartland Championship was contested by the following teams:

Team	Super Rugby partner	Hometown	Home stadium	Capacity[2]
Buller	Crusaders	Westport	Victoria Square	5,000
East Coast	Hurricanes	Ruatoria	Whakarua Park	3,000
Horowhenua-Kapiti	Hurricanes	Levin	Levin Domain	6,500
King Country	Chiefs	Taupō	Owen Delany Park	20,000
Mid Canterbury	Crusaders	Ashburton	Ashburton Showgrounds	5,000
North Otago	Highlanders	Oamaru	Whitestone Contracting Stadium	7,000
Poverty Bay	Hurricanes	Gisborne	More FM Rugby Park	18,000
South Canterbury	Crusaders	Timaru	Fraser Park	12,000
Thames Valley	Chiefs	Paeroa	Paeroa Domain	3,000
Wairarapa Bush	Hurricanes	Masterton	Trust House Memorial Park	10,000
Wanganui	Hurricanes	Wanganui	Cooks Gardens	15,000
West Coast	Crusaders	Greymouth	Rugby Park	6,000

Two Heartland Championship teams – Thames Valley and Mid Canterbury – challenged Counties Manukau for the Ranfurly Shield in two matches that took place in at Counties Manukau's home ground, ECOLight Stadium in Pukekohe.^{[1] [3]}

Pos.	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts
1	Buller	8	8	0	0	282	145	+137	5	0	37
2	Poverty Bay	8	5	1	2	231	168	+63	5	1	28
3	Mid Canterbury	8	5	1	2	258	139	+119	3	1	26
4	Horowhenua-Kapiti	8	5	2	1	169	121	+48	1	1	26
5	King Country	8	5	0	3	196	176	+20	3	2	25
6	South Canterbury	8	4	0	4	202	165	+37	4	1	21
7	North Otago	8	4	0	4	174	155	+19	1	2	20
8	Wanganui	8	3	0	5	203	194	+9	3	2	17
9	Thames Valley	8	3	1	4	139	135	+2	0	3	17
10	West Coast	8	2	0	6	163	232	−69	2	3	13
11	Wairarapa Bush	8	1	1	6	151	238	−87	2	1	9
12	East Coast	8	0	0	8	67	367	−300	0	0	0

In the case of a two-team tie on points the ranking of teams is decided by:

• (1) the winner of the round robin match between the two provinces; then
• (2) highest point difference; then
• (3) most tries scored; then
• (4) a coin toss.

In the case of a three-team or more tie on points the ranking of teams is decided by:

• (1) the province with the most wins against other tied provinces in the Round Robin; then
• (2) if two teams remain tied they shall be ranked according to the criteria listed above, but if more than two teams remain tied, they shall be ranked according to criteria (2) to (4) only.

The schedule of fixtures was released on 3 April 2014.^[1]