[5] Like Albion teammates, Joseph Lavery and Hubert Turtill, Pearce was selected for the professional All Blacks 1907-1908 tour of Australia and Great Britain.
All the members of the touring party received a life ban from the New Zealand Rugby Union.
He played in the first ever trans-Tasman test which was the debut match of the Australia national rugby league team.
He was chosen for the return match at the Petone Recreation Ground on September 12 but chose to stand down along with other senior players in order to give others a chance to play the fledgling code.
[6] After the tour Pearce remained in New Zealand and went on to captain the Canterbury rugby league team.
He had worked years earlier with his father as a contractor at the Christchurch Abattoir, and was later "engaged in farming operations in the Argentine".