“I have played rugby since I was six or seven years old — straight into tackle and I enjoy the game very much,”
“Once I finished club rugby I would watch my brothers play and then I got the chance to do some refereeing.”
More opportunities have seen him go from strength to strength.
“I started off at a couple of tournaments, some lightweight ones, and I quite enjoyed it.”
Since then he has been approached to do more games in the community and through that experience he has grown in confidence.
“I was asked if I wanted to get into the Saturday morning refereeing, so I started doing that this season.”
He has had a lot of help from the rugby community, which has progressed his skill and knowledge.
“Ray Young has been helping me out a bit — training me up, giving me some tips.”
With more games under his belt, doors are beginning to open.
He has blown the whistle at a few secondary school games including travelling to Bay of Plenty to referee an under-14 school game in Tauranga.
Next week will be the biggest event of his budding career.
He has got on to the radar of the Hurricanes and will be heading to Wellington to ref at an u15 tournament over the week.
He was also contacted by teachers Cambell McNaught and Stu Barclay, who organise the Gisborne primary school rugby competition.
“We have 27 teams in our competition and whenever we have a challenge (Weka Ball or George Bridge Shield), we try to have a neutral ref,” Barclay said.
“He's (Pearce) an up-and-coming referee and he just drops what he is doing, and comes and referees a game.
“By all accounts he is outstanding.”
The standard he is at is becoming more evident with Barclay fielding a lot of positive feedback about his performances.
“I got flooded with emails last Monday about how awesome he was about his refereeing the week before.”
Joel is a young man going places in the rugby community and he wants to pursue it all the way.
