On his 22nd birthday, and with no experience, Matthew Pearce stepped into the commentary box to call his first 80 minutes of live rugby. It was a 1992 Lion Cup match between Natal and Western Province, and it turned out to be an auspicious moment.
“I had no idea what I was doing,” Pearce says.
Since then he has been behind the microphone for 33 years, at two World Cup victories by the Springboks and 157 other Test matches.
In that time, Pearce, now 55, has developed his own style and method. His meticulous preparation is one of the reasons that he’s become a trusted narrator of Springbok sagas. He is famous for his notes; they’re detailed and comprehensive. He might use only 10%-15% of what’s in them, but they ensure he is never lost for words.
“You’re catering for the diehard fan as well as the viewer who’s never seen a Test,” he says. “My role is to inform and to provide colour where necessary. You want to take the viewer on a vocal journey.”
Then there’s his tone: in a high-intensity environment it’s unemotional. And his spontaneity, which, as Winston Churchill said, you must plan. “I don’t believe in preparing something verbatim, because it tempts fate,” he says. “But you need to put a framework together to ensure you are ready when the moment arrives.”
In Japan’s Yokohama commentary box of 2019, when Springbok wings Makazole Mapimpi and Cheslin Kolbe scored late tries for the Boks to bury England in the World Cup final, that moment arrived. Pearce was measured in his personal excitement. “You can’t afford not to be calm,” Pearce says. In a powerful tribute to the Boks at the final whistle, he began in English and closed in Xhosa: “Halala, amaBokke, halala.”
Getting from that Lion Cup match to the World Cup final of 2019 was hardly meteoric.
While a student he’d been a freelancer, writing about club sport for the Cape Times, playing golf off scratch and writing about that sport for the paper. He got a few radio commissions but did not seriously consider becoming a broadcaster. Opportunities were few, too.
After more freelancing during the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa, he returned to his job at a textile company.
My role is to inform and to provide colour where necessary. You want to take the viewer on a vocal journey.
— Matthew Pearce
But journalism beckoned. He became the editor of Golf Digest, then of Sports Illustrated. For the 1998 ICC Knockout Trophy, a forerunner of cricket’s Champions Trophy, which South Africa won by beating the West Indies in the final, he was hired by e.tv to be a studio co-host.
It was then that he met Imtiaz Patel, who was working for the United Cricket Board of South Africa (today Cricket South Africa) and would assume significance in Pearce’s career. Pearce also began to take broadcasting seriously. “I was getting some good feedback,” he says of the radio and TV stints. “So I started sending my [rugby] tapes to SuperSport.”
The channel’s response was not encouraging. It was not interested in someone who had not played the game at the highest level. “This went on for seven years.”
By then — in 2005 — Patel had become head of production at SuperSport. Pearce called him.
“I only wanted a chance to show what I could do,” says Pearce. “He agreed to give me the Vodacom Cup game between the Natal Wildebeest and the Border Bulldogs, and ended the call with ‘Don’t fuck it up’.”
A year later, Pearce called his first Bok Test — between South Africa and France — and his TV career began to gather momentum.
“I covered all three Tests on the 2008 tour to the UK, and on the back of that I got the chance to call the first two Tests of the 2009 [British & Irish] Lions series.”
The year turned out to be a landmark one for the Boks in the Tri Nations against New Zealand and Australia. “I was there for two of the three wins against New Zealand, including the ‘final’ in Hamilton, which remains one of my career highlights.”
Pearce’s return to New Zealand in 2018 turned out to be a wet one — but no dampening experience. He called the Boks’ 36-34 win over the All Blacks in Wellington, a result he did not see coming. “I made a bet with some of my New Zealand colleagues that if the Boks won, I’d jump into Wellington harbour. I had a flight to catch the next morning, so I ended up doing that swim at midnight.”
For Pearce, the Wellington victory was a portent. “In the aftermath ... you could see what it meant to the players. I interviewed Handré Pollard pitchside and he spoke about the belief the result had given them.” By the time the team reached the 2019 World Cup final, Pearce was convinced that the Boks would win. Halala.
