Durban's first Super 12 semi, 2001, wakes Super Rugby Pacific's archive
A record 52,750 crowd watched the Sharks host the Cats for a place in the final, and the mini replay is drawing viewers again in the off-season.
Super Rugby Pacific
Story of Why this story? The channel's weekly summary: what went up this week, what is drawing views now, and where the channel stands among similar channels.
SUPER 12 CLASSIC MINI | 2001 Sharks v Cats | Semi Final
"SUPER 12 CLASSIC MINI | 2001 Sharks v Cats | Semi Final" is a short cut of a night Durban had never hosted before: its first Super Rugby semifinal. The description puts the crowd at 52,750, a Super 12 record at the time, all there to see whether the Sharks or the Cats would reach the final. Sixty days after it went up on Super Rugby Pacific's channel, it is still finding viewers at nearly the same daily pace as anything else on the shelf.
That is a nice reminder of how far the competition has traveled. South African sides were part of Super Rugby from the Super 12 era on, before the tournament became the Pacific version described in the channel's about text, with Australia, New Zealand, Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika.
Nothing new went up over the week, and the rest of the attention went to international rugby. The two busiest videos are Round 3 highlights from the 2026 Nations Championship. Argentina against England is the one most opened, a match the description frames around England's record of a single loss in their last 16 meetings with Los Pumas. Fiji against Scotland follows, set up as a rematch of the Fijians' historic win in Suva a year earlier.
With the club season out of the way, the channel is moving more slowly than usual, and subscribers held at 414,000. Among the sports channels near its size, TNT Sports Cycling and the AFL are having the busy weeks, the AFL fuelled by its trade period. For Super Rugby Pacific, for now, the most interesting thing playing is a full stadium in Durban from 2001.
Published on Trari
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The videos drawing views on Super Rugby Pacific right now
- Channel
- Super Rugby Pacific
- Subscribers
- 414,000
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 40,154
- Videos published this week
- 0
The numbers
Here is how Super Rugby Pacific's channel moved over the week.
💡 Test your knowledge
Which team won the first Super 12 title, in 1996?
The Blues beat the Sharks in the 1996 final at Eden Park to win the first Super 12 and defended the title in 1997.
