The Heartland Championship competition, known for sponsorship reasons as the Mitre 10 Heartland Championship, is a domestic rugby union competition in New Zealand. It was founded in 2006 as one of two successor competitions to the country's former domestic competition, the National Provincial Championship (NPC). The country's 27 provincial teams were split into two separate competitions. Thirteen of the original teams, plus one merged side created from two other teams, entered the new top-level professional competition, the Air New Zealand Cup (now known as the Mitre 10 Cup). The remaining 12 sides entered the new Heartland Championship, whose teams contest two distinct trophies, both named after legendary New Zealand players: