2010 Heartland Championship

The 2010 Heartland Championship was the fifth edition of the New Zealand provincial rugby union competition, since the 2006 reconstruction. The teams represented the 12 amateur rugby unions.

In Round 1, the teams were split into two pools of 6 teams in a round-robin format (30 games, from 30 August to 25 September).

In Round 2, the first three teams in each pool of Round 1 competed for the Meads Cup, the others competed for the Lochore Cup. Each team met the teams from the other pool of Round 1 in a round-robin format (18 games, from 2 October to 16 October). The first four teams in Round 2 went on to the semifinals, the winners of which went on to the grand final on 31 October.

The winning teams were Whanganui in the Meads Cup, and Wairarapa-Bush in the Lochore Cup.

Finals
The semi-finals began with controversy when West Coast Rugby Football Union were effectively expelled from the competition:

""West Coast, with three wins and two bonus points, had gained sufficient championship points to qualify for the Lochore Cup semi-finals but the team’s endeavors were ruined when the NZRU fined West Coast $2500 and stripped it of live competition points for knowingly breaching the eligibility regulations during the game against Wairarapa Bush which the Coast had won and gained a bonus point for scoring four tries." – West Coast Rugby Football Union"

The Meads Cup semi-finals were won by North Otago and Whanganui, defeating Mid-Canterbury and Poverty Bay respectively. In the Lochore Cup, Wairarapa Bush and Buller progressed to the final by beating King Country and Horowhenua-Kapiti respectively.

In the final of the Meads Cup, North Otago won the game 39–18 over Whanganui in the match on 30 October at Whitestone Contracting Stadium.

The 2010 Lochore Cup was won 15–9 by Wairarapa Bush in the game against Buller.