| 2023 Heartland Championship | |
| Date: | – |
| Countries: |  New Zealand |
| Champion Other: | South Canterbury (Meads Cup) West Coast (Lochore Cup) |
| Runnerup Other: | Whanganui (Meads Cup) Poverty Bay (Lochore Cup) |
| Matches: | 54 |
| Preceded By: | 2022 |
| Succeeded By: | 2024 |
The 2023 Heartland Championship, was the 17th 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.
The 2023 Heartland Championship was contested by the following teams:
In the regular season, South Canterbury topped the standings with 40 points after winning all eight games.[1]
| Team | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 341 | 180 | +161 | 8 | 0 | 40 | ||
| 2 | Whanganui | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 264 | 156 | +108 | 6 | 2 | 32 | |
| 3 | Thames Valley | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 246 | 220 | +26 | 5 | 2 | 31 | |
| 4 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 222 | 183 | +39 | 5 | 2 | 27 | ||
| 5 | North Otago | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 259 | 228 | +31 | 5 | 1 | 22 | |
| 6 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 190 | 246 | -56 | 4 | 2 | 22 | ||
| 7 | West Coast | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 218 | 212 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 21 | |
| 8 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 229 | 249 | -20 | 4 | 4 | 16 | ||
| 9 | Mid Canterbury | 8 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 221 | 245 | -24 | 5 | 3 | 16 | |
| 10 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 175 | 248 | -73 | 3 | 1 | 16 | ||
| 11 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 165 | 242 | -77 | 5 | 2 | 15 | ||
| 12 | Horowhenua-Kapiti | 8 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 176 | 297 | -121 | 2 | 1 | 11 |
| Meads Cup qualification | ||
| Lochore Cup qualification |
During the regular season two games were decided by golden point. The final results in these games (after extra time) were East Coast 24, Buller 21 in Round 4 and West Coast 32, Mid Canterbury 29 in Round 6.
Siu Kakala the Number 8 forward from South Canterbury became the 4th Heartland Championship player to score a try in all 8 regular season games. He also scored a try in the semi-finals. He was named the 2023 Heartland Championship Player of the Year.[2]
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.
In the 2023 season South Canterbury once again went unbeaten through the regular season, albeit that they scored 341 points, significantly lower than the previous season's record of 491.
South Canterbury went on to win their semi-final 34–17 over Ngati Porou East Coast.[3] [4] As in the 2022 season they met Whanganui in the final and won by 40–30.[5] [6] It was the 3rd Meads Cup in a row for South Canterbury, equaling the feat of Whanganui who won in the 2015, 2016 and 2017 seasons. South Canterbury set a record with 31 consecutive wins.
As in the 2022 season, North Otago finished the regular season 5th and therefore top qualifier for the Lochore Cup. However they lost their home semi-final to 8th placed Poverty Bay by 35–40. In the other semi-final Wairarapa Bush the 6th placegetter in the regular season were also upset, losing to 7th placed West Coast by 27–33 at Masterton.
West Coast then beat Poverty Bay by 23–20 in the final. It was the first Lochore Cup title for West Coast who had previously suffered three Lochore Cup final defeats.[7]