Matthew Pearce

Presenter

Matthew Pearce was born and raised in Cape Town. After school, he studied at UCT towards a degree in industrial psychology and a post-graduate diploma in marketing through the Business Science Faculty. During his time at university, he was asked by a friend to help him to do some freelance reporting for the local newspapers on rugby, cricket and golf and he eventually became the official golf writer for the Cape Times newspaper whilst he was still at university.

Through his association with the Cape Times, Matthew picked up some occasional freelance radio reporting slots and so, a passion for sports media – and broadcasting, in particular – was born. He did his first live rugby commentary on SABC radio on his 22nd birthday during his mid-year exams in his final year of his degree; a clear indication of the direction in which his career would head in the future.

Having completed his studies, he got a sales and marketing job which lasted all of three months before he was offered the editorship of Golf Digest magazine. Eighteen months later, he became the youngest editor of SA Sports Illustrated at the age of twenty-six – a position which he held for over five years. In 2005 he was given the opportunity to commentate on a rugby match for M-Net’s SuperSport channel and a little more than a year later, he called his first Springbok test match for SuperSport.

Matthew has toured with the Springboks since 2008 and has anchored the SuperSport coverage at the Rugby World Cup since 2011. He was named TV Newcomer of the Year at the 2006 SAB Sports Media Awards and has since won TV Commentator of the Year three times, along with three SASOL Springbok Merit awards for excellence in rugby broadcasting.