Farah Palmer Cup

The Farah Palmer Cup (formerly known as Women's Provincial Championship until 2016), is the highest level domestic women's rugby union competition in New Zealand and is named after the former Black Ferns captain, Farah Palmer. It is held annually from early July to mid September and managed by the New Zealand Rugby Union, or NZRU. The competition was first introduced in 1999, with a total of fourteen teams competing initially. The number of teams increased to eighteen in the year 2000, but has decreased to as few as six teams, with 13 currently featured. Canterbury are the current holders of the JJ Stewart Trophy, the women's equivalent of the Ranfurly Shield.^[1] The Farah Palmer Cup is an amateur competition; players are not paid salaries and hold jobs outside of rugby.^[2] The competition was previously played under such names as the Women's National Provincial Championship, the Lion Foundation Cup, the Women's Championship, and the Women's Competition.^[3]

Farah Palmer Cup

Most recent season or competition: 2024 Farah Palmer Cup
Sport	Rugby Union
Founded	1999; 26 years ago (1999)
Owner(s)	New Zealand Rugby Union
No. of teams	13
Country	New Zealand
Most recent champion(s)	Waikato (2nd Premiership Title)
Most titles	Auckland (16 Titles)
Broadcaster(s)	Sky Sport
Sponsor(s)	Bunnings
Related competitions	Heartland Championship National Provincial Championship
Official website	provincial.rugby/farah-palmer-cup

Competition format

Originally, the cup was arranged in one division, with all 12 teams facing each other at least once. The top four teams then met in semi-finals. From 2011 to 2014, the semi-finals round was eliminated and the top two teams automatically qualified for the finals. In 2015, the semi-finals round was reintroduced.

In 2017, the Farah Palmer Cup was split into two divisions with promotion and relegation between the two. The top division was named the Premiership while the bottom was called the Championship. A team played every team in their division once in the regular season before a semi-final and final for each division. In 2019 Northland joined the competition, causing the Premiership to expand to seven teams and leaving the Championship with six.

In 2020 the competition was instead run in two pools split geographically between the north and south of New Zealand. The north pool contained seven teams and the south pool contained six; a single round robin was played in each pool. The top two teams from each pool took part in crossover semi-finals, with the final being held a week later.^[4]

In 2021 and 2022, the FPC reverted to its 2017 format with the 13 teams being split into Premiership and Championship. As before, a round-robin format was used in the regular season, followed by semi-finals and a grand final.

Teams

Northland

North Harbour

Auckland

Counties Manukau

Waikato

Bay of Plenty

Taranaki

Hawke's Bay

Manawatu

Wellington

Tasman

Canterbury

Otago

Locations of the Farah Palmer Cup teams

Colours	Union	Town/City, Region	Stadium	Capacity	Established	Head coach
Premiership
	Auckland	Auckland*	Eden Park	50,000	1883	Willie Walker
	Bay of Plenty	Mount Maunganui, Bay of Plenty	Rotorua International Stadium Tauranga Domain	26,000 5,000	1911	Paul Tietjens
	Canterbury	Christchurch, Canterbury	Orangetheory Stadium	18,000	1879	Blair Baxter
	Counties Manukau	Pukekohe, Auckland	Navigation Homes Stadium	12,000	1955	Chad Shepherd
	Hawke's Bay	Napier, Hawke's Bay	McLean Park	19,700	1884	Blair Cross, Stephen Woods
	Northland	Whangārei, Northland	Semenoff Stadium	30,000	1920	Cheryl Smith
	Waikato	Hamilton, Waikato	FMG Stadium Waikato	25,800	1921	James Semple
Championship
	Manawatu	Palmerston North, Manawatū	Central Energy Trust Arena	15,000	1886	Fusi Feaunati
	North Harbour	Albany, Auckland	North Harbour Stadium	25,000	1985	Duncan McGrory
	Otago	Dunedin, Otago	Forsyth Barr Stadium	30,748	1881	Scott Manson
	Taranaki	New Plymouth, Taranaki	TET Stadium & Events Centre	4,000	1885	Brendan Haami
	Tasman	Nelson* Blenheim, Marlborough	Trafalgar Park Lansdowne Park	18,000 15,000	2006	Mel Bosman
	Wellington	Wellington*	Sky Stadium	34,500	1879	Ross Bond

1. * Denotes Town/City named the same as the region.

Champions

Premiership

Season	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Semi-finalist 1	Semi-finalist 2	League Leader
2006[5]	Wellington	11–10	Auckland	Otago	Hawke's Bay	Otago
2007[6]	Auckland	13–12	Otago	Wellington	Canterbury	Auckland
2008[7]	Auckland	13–12	Canterbury	Hawke's Bay	Manawatu	Auckland
2009[8]	Auckland	24–20	Canterbury	Hawke's Bay	Wellington	Canterbury
2011[9]	Auckland	34–8	Wellington			Auckland
2012[10]	Auckland	38–12	Canterbury			Auckland
2013[11]	Auckland	20–10	Canterbury			Canterbury
2014[12]	Auckland	28–14	Waikato			Auckland
2015[13]	Auckland	39–9	Wellington	Waikato	Counties Manukau	Auckland
2016	Counties Manukau	41–22	Auckland	Wellington	Canterbury	Counties Manukau
2017	Canterbury	13–7	Counties Manukau	Waikato	Auckland	Counties Manukau
2018	Canterbury	52–29	Counties Manukau	Manawatu	Waikato	Canterbury
2019	Canterbury	30–20	Auckland	Wellington	Counties Manukau	Canterbury
2020	Canterbury	8–7	Waikato	Auckland	Manawatu	Waikato
2021	Waikato	22–20	Canterbury	Wellington		Canterbury
2022	Canterbury	41–14	Auckland	Wellington	Waikato	Canterbury
2023	Auckland	39-27	Canterbury	Hawkes Bay	Waikato	Canterbury
2024	Waikato	27-25	Canterbury	Counties Manukau	Auckland	Waikato

Championship

Season	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Semi-finalist 1	Semi-finalist 2	League Leader
2017	Bay of Plenty	7–5	Otago	North Harbour	N/A	Bay of Plenty
2018	Wellington	57–5	Otago	Hawke's Bay	North Harbour	Wellington
2019	Otago	24–20	Hawke's Bay	Tasman	Northland	Otago
2020	–
2021	Manawatū	55–12	Hawke's Bay	Northland		Manawatū
2022	Hawke's Bay	24–20	Otago	Northland	North Harbour	Otago
2023	Northland	32–29	Manawatū	Tasman	Otago	Manawatū
2024	Manwatū	33-3	Otago	Wellington	North Harbour	Manwatū

Past Premierships

Season	Winner	Runner-up
1999	Auckland	Wellington
2000	Auckland	Otago
2001	Auckland	Wellington
2002	Auckland	Wellington
2003	Auckland	Wellington
2004	Auckland	Canterbury
2005	Auckland	Canterbury

Total Wins

Team	Premierships	Championships	Runners- Up	Losing Semi Finalists
Auckland	16	0	4	2
Canterbury	5	0	7	2
Wellington	1	1	6	6
Counties Manukau	1	0	2	2
Bay of Plenty	0	1	0	0
Otago	0	1	5	1
Hawke's Bay	0	1	2	4
Waikato	2	0	2	3
Manawatū	0	1	0	3
North Harbour	0	0	0	3
Tasman	0	0	0	1
Northland	0	0	0	3
Taranaki	0	0	0	0