The 2006 Heartland Championship was the inaugural season of the Heartland Championship, an amateur rugby union competition in New Zealand, following the reorganisation of the Second and Third Divisions of the country's former rugby competition, the National Provincial Championship. The competition featured 12 teams, divided into two pools of six.
At the end of Round 1, the top three teams from each pool contested the Meads Cup,[1] and the bottom three from each pool contested the Lochore Cup.[2] Competition points from Round 1 carried over to Round 2, in which each team in each cup competition played a round-robin with the three teams it did not play in Round 1. At the end of Round 2, the top four teams in each cup competition entered a single-elimination playoff for the Meads and Lochore Cups. The cups were named after Colin Meads and Brian Lochore, both legendary players for the country's national team.
+/− = Points difference (total points scored minus total points against)
BP = Bonus points (teams can score additional bonus points by certain scenarios: one bonus point will be awarded to any team that scores four tries or more regardless of win/loss/draw, and another bonus point will be awarded to the losing side if the loss is by seven points or less. It is possible to receive two bonus points in a loss.)
