2023 Farah Palmer Cup

The 2023 Farah Palmer Cup season is the 17th season of the competition. The regular season ran from 15 July to 27 August, with the playoffs running from 2 to 9 September.

Auckland upset Canterbury to win the Premiership final, it was their first victory over Canterbury since 2017 and their first national title since 2015. Northland beat Manawatū to win their first title in the Championship final and were promoted to the Premiership for the 2024 season.

Format
The Farah Palmer Cup standings are sorted by a competition points system. Four points are awarded to the winning team, a draw earns two points, whilst a loss amounts to zero points. Unions can also win their side a respectable bonus point. To receive a bonus point, they must score four tries or more, or lose by seven points or less. Each team is placed on their total points received. If a tiebreaker is necessary, when two or more teams finish on equal points, the union who acquired more competition points against the other tied team(s) gets placed higher. In the case that separation is still not made, the winner of the head-to-head result between the teams will get rights to be ranked above. This seeding format was only implemented for the 2020 competition.

The regular season consists of two types of matches. Each union play home or away games against each team from their division, making a total of six competition games during the regular season for each union in the Premiership pool, and five regular season games for those in the Championship pool.

Week 1
Bye: Counties Manukau, Championship Teams

Week 2
Bye: Hawke's Bay, Championship Teams

Week 3
Bye: Auckland

Week 4
Bye: Canterbury

Week 5
Bye: Waikato

Week 6
Bye: Wellington

Week 7
Bye: Bay of Plenty

Play-offs
Premiership

Championship

Semi-finals
Premiership Semi-finals

Championship Semi-finals

Finals
Premiership Final

Championship Final

JJ Stewart Trophy
The JJ Stewart Trophy is a trophy based on a challenge system, rather than a league or knockout competition as with most football trophies. The holding union must defend the trophy in challenge matches, and if a challenger defeats them, they become the new holder of the trophy.

Canterbury started the season as holders of the trophy and as such, were obligated to place the trophy up for challenge in all of their regular season home games.