Pearson makes for Murrayfield
It’s a shorter journey than usual for Dave Pearson this weekend as he heads over the Borders to Edinburgh to referee the Six Nations Match between Scotland and Ireland – a shorter distance from home than for most club matches in his native England.
Pearson comes from Northumberland (north of the Humber), England’s most northerly county and its most sparsely populated. He comes in fact from north of Hadrian’s wall, the Roman emperor’s attempt to keep the wild folk of the north out of the Roman province of Britain.
This is the county of Grace Darling, Lindisfarne’s Holy Island, the Cheviots and cross-border raids and skirmishes. It is the land of the Geordie, speaking a Viking-influenced form of English with an accent that others find strange and supporting Newcastle United. Pearson is from just north of Newcastle-on-Tyne.
He was born in the market town of Morpeth, on 9 August 1966, went to Bedlington High School just south of Morpeth and then to the University of Northumbria (BSc in Applied Chemistry) in Newcastle, and lives east of Morpeth in Ashington where once there were coal mines and where the cricketer Steve Harmison comes from.
Sport was always a part of his life and he represented Northumberland at rugby, soccer, cricket, athletics and golf. He played for Northumberland as a three-quarter at Under-16 and Under-18 and then for Seghill RFC’s 1st XV – and then he got dropped.
Pearson says: “My refereeing career started when my club (Seghill RFC) got a new coach and dropped me because I wasn’t training. Pretty difficult when you’re not even in the country. I didn’t enjoy 2nd or 3rd team rugby.”
He was travelling a great deal then, working as he did as a chemical engineer for Procter and Gamble for 17 years, “travelling through Europe (Barcelona, Rome, Paris, Brussels, Frankfurt and unfortunately London!) developing new ways of making soap powder. Exciting or what!”.
Dropped, he turned to refereeing. “Kids needed ref for Sunday morning – did that and never looked back.”
He joined the Northumberland referees’ Society and in September 1992 refereed his first match – Ashington 3rd vs Guisborough 3rd at the age of 26. So he has been around rugby fields as player and referee for quite some time.
In 1997 he got onto England’s national panel and in February 2000 enjoyed the excitement of his first premiership match, by default but nonetheless exciting. His refereeing hero Brian Campsall was refereeing Rotherham vs Sale Sharks with Pearson as the touch judge. Campsall was injured and up stepped Pearson. From there on things progressed rapidly. In September that year he refereed his first full premiership match – Harlequins vs London Irish in the shadow of Twickenham itself.
In September 2002 he became an full-time referee in England, one of a select few. The others were Chris White, Tony Spreadbury, Steve Lander and Roy Maybank, till Lander dropped off and Wayne Barnes came on. In 2003 Pearson was at the great-fun Hong Kong Sevens but it was in 2005 that things started to happen.
Then he started his way up the three IRB panels which existed when he first got onto the C Panel, then the B Panel and then in 2005 the A Panel of the 16 top referees in the world. The structure was changed in 2006 to just two panels, one of 21 rerferees and the other of 19 referees who would be used in top matches as touch judges and television match officials only. Pearson was in the top 21, and in with a chance of refereeing at the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France.
In April 2005 he refereed the Powergen Final and then on 23 April 2005 – Pearson is efficient – he refereed his first Test match – Argentina vs Japan, when the Pumas won 68-36 in a 13-try extravaganza at the Cricket & Rugby Club in Buenos Aires.
In February 2006, Pearson refereed his first Six Nations match – Ireland vs Italy in Dublin – and later in the year the final of England’s Premiership. At the end of the year he refereed Wales vs New Zealand in Cardiff.
That’s a lot of top refereeing achievement.
Help? “In the early years of my career I was helped by members of the Northumberland RU Referees’ Society (Alan Beercroft, Rod Bramald and Malcolm Jarvie)
“Once I reached the RFU Panel I was coached by Richard Bullock and Tony Turner.
“The last 6 years I’ve been coached by the referee I admired most for the way he interacted with and got respect from the players – Brian Campsall. Hopefully some of his refereeing ability has rubbed off onto me.
“Also the last 3 years I’ve work with Steve Black (Lions 2001, Wales, Newcastle Falcons fitness coach). He’s changed the way I train from simply getting physically fit (running, weights, etc) to working on the skills you need as a referee as a way to get fit (e.g. sharpness, awareness of space, visualisation).”
And all that travelling? After all he is an English referee but Twickenham is 300 miles (482 km) from home, Murrayfield only 110 miles (177 km). “Living where I do in the North of England every weekend is a travelling weekend using England marvellous rail and road network!
“However travelling as much in the job I did before refereeing means that the travel doesn’t worry me – I treat it as part of the job.
“In terms of international travel I’ve officiated in South Africa, Argentina, Romania, Australia, France, Italy, Hong Kong 7s, Malaysia 7s and, even though its only 100 km from home, Scotland!”
How does his wife handle the absence? “Paulene has learnt to ‘understand’ rugby. She gets some benefits from my being full-time – housework done, tea ready when she comes in from work and the odd holiday in places we would never visited had it not been for rugby (Australia and Argentina – twice).”
He lists as his interests outside of rugby golf (7 handicap) and cooking.
His aim as a referee? “My aim and hope for every match is to stay in the background, provide a safe environment for the players to work in and to get the big calls right.”
His hopes as a referee? “Selection for Rugby World Cup 2007 in any capacity – even as waterboy for Spreaders!”
