The 2019 Mitre 10 Cup season was the 14th season of New Zealand's provincial rugby union competition since it became a 14 team tournament in 2006. The regular season begins on 8 August with Southland hosting a match against Northland. It involves the top fourteen rugby unions of New Zealand. For sponsorship reasons, the competition is known as the Mitre 10 Cup and it is the fourth season under the lead sponsor. The winner of the Championship will be promoted to the Premiership, while the team that places last in the Premiership will be relegated.
Format
The Mitre 10 Cup standings are sorted by a competition points system. Four points are awarded to the winning team, a draw equals to 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 or fewer points or less. Each team is placed on their total points received. If necessary of a tiebreaker, when two or more teams finish on equal points, the union who defeated the other in a head-to-head gets placed higher. In case of a draw between them, the side with the biggest points deferential margin will get rights to be ranked above. If they are tied on points difference, it is then decided by a highest scored try count or a coin toss. This seeding format has been implemented since the beginning of the 2006 competition. The competition includes a promotion-relegation process with the winner of the Championship receiving automatic promotion to the Premiership replacing the seventh-placed team in the Premiership which is relegated to the Championship for the following year. The regular season consists of two types of matches. The internal division matches are when each team played the other six unions in their division once, home or away. The cross-division matches are when each team played four teams from the other division, thus missing out on three teams, each from the opposite division. Each union played home or away games against teams from the other division, making a total of ten competition games for each union. The finals format allows the top four teams from each division to qualify for the semi-finals. The top two placed teams in the division, based on table points, receive a home semi-final. In the first round of the finals, the semi-finals, the second placed team is to host the third placed team, and the first placed team is to host the fourth placed team. The final is to be hosted by the top remaining seed.
Standings
Standings progression
Regular season
The 2019 Mitre 10 Cup is played across ten weeks. The competition starts on Thursday, 8 August 2019, with Southland taking on Northland at Rugby Park Stadium in Invercargill.
