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| Born | (1987-11-13)13 November 1987 (age 38) Pontypool, Wales | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Occupation | Rugby union referee | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Luke Pearce (born 13 November 1987) is an English[1]rugby union referee representing theRugby Football Union. He is a regular referee in theEnglish Premiership and has refereed games atEuropean level and at the2019 Rugby World Cup.
Pearce, who grew up inExeter, joined the Devon Referee Society in 2005 at the age of 16.[dubious –discuss][2] He previously played rugby at junior level, being part of the Exeter Saracens Rugby Club and captained a Welsh Exiles Under-16's team. In September 2005, Pearce, refereed his first game, Crediton Seconds againstNewton Abbot Thirds. From there, Pearce quickly went through the referee system, becoming the youngest referee to be promoted to the RFU National panel in 2009.[3] By then Luke had already moved through the ranks refereeing in theRFU Championship at the age of 21.[4]
In November 2009, Pearce took charge of the Russian cup final.[5] On 10 September 2011, Pearce took charge of his first Premiership match, officiatingGloucester's home game againstWorcester Warriors.[6] That same season, he debuted on theWorld Sevens Series and since then has appeared in nine series tournaments.
On 18 November 2011, he took charge of his first European game, referringStade Français's victory overBucurești Wolves during the2011–12 European Challenge Cup. In February 2013, Pearce refereed his first international, taking charge ofRomania againstRussia in theEuropean Nations Cup. Later that year, he was appointed by the IRB (nowWorld Rugby) to officiate in the2013 IRB Junior World Championship inFrance. This included the semi-final meeting betweenSouth Africa U20 andWales U20. In October that year, Pearce went on to referee his firstHeineken Cup match (Toulouse vsZebre) before going onto officiate his first IRB appointed test match,Russia vsJapan.[7] In 2014, Luke made his firstSix Nations Championship appearance, acting as Assistant Referee forSteve Walsh in the meeting betweenItaly andScotland. Weeks later, Pearce was in the middle for the 2014 European Nations Cup decider betweenGeorgia and Romania which also acted as the last stage of qualification for European nations ahead of the2015 Rugby World Cup. Pearce also featured in the2014 Africa Cup inMadagascar taking charge in two games.
In 2016, Pearce was Assistant Referee forIreland's first ever victory overNew Zealand, before he went on to referee his first major Tier 2 v Tier 2 match,Samoa vsCanada. In June 2017, he refereed his first Tier 1 nation, officiatingArgentina's home match against Georgia.[8]
In the2018 mid-year rugby union internationals, he took charge of his first tier 1 vs tier 1 game.[9] On 12 September 2021 he took charge of a Southern Hemisphere international, Australia v South Africa. One commentator said it was a pleasure to hear a new voice in Australian rugby.