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. This contest 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]

All teams face each other at least once, with the top four teams in the championship proceeding to the semi-finals. From 2011 to 2014, the semi-finals round was eliminated and the top two teams in the championship 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 is named the Premiership while the bottom is called the Championship. A team will play every team in their division once in the regular season before a semi-final then final for each division. In 2019 Northland joined the competition, causing the Premiership to expand to seven teams and leaving the Championship at six teams.

In 2020 the competition was instead run in two pools split geographically between the north and south of New Zealand. The north pool contains seven teams and the south pool contains six, a single round robin is played in each pool. The top two teams from each pool take part in a crossover semi-finals with the final being held a week later.^[3]

In 2021 and 2022, the FPC reverted to its original format with all 13 teams being split into two divisions with a promotion and relegation system. The top division is named the Premiership while the bottom division is named the Championship. A Round-Robin format was also used in the regular season to determine which teams will make the playoffs in the Semi Final's and the Grand Final.

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

More information Colours, Union ...

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	Rodney Gibbs
	Canterbury	Christchurch, Canterbury	Orangetheory Stadium	18,000	1879	Blair Baxter
	Counties Manukau	Pukekohe, Auckland	Navigation Homes Stadium	12,000	1955	Chad Shepherd
	Manawatu	Palmerston North, Manawatu	Central Energy Trust Arena	15,000	1886	Fusi Feaunati
	Northland	Whangarei, Northland	Semenoff Stadium	30,000	1920	Cheryl Smith
	Waikato	Hamilton, Waikato	FMG Stadium Waikato	25,800	1921	James Semple
Championship
	Hawke's Bay	Napier, Hawke's Bay	McLean Park	19,700	1884	Blair Cross, Stephen Woods
	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

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