DALE Harding’s rise as a referee will continue this Saturday when he officiates at the World Masters Games.

The Orange referee has been appointed to the Over 35s gold medal match.

Harding expressed his interest in being involved in the Games and received a pleasant surprise when the referees were announced.

“The appointments came out and there I was getting the gold medal game. I was really happy with that,” Harding said.

The Over 35s are the youngest age group in the rugby union competition at the Games and Harding expects many of them would still be regular players.

“Unfortunately I’m not there all this week to see all the pool games,” he explained.

“So I’m really going in blind on Saturday. I really don’t have any idea what to expect. So I’ll just go out there, do my best and do what I normally do.”

Harding has been a full-time referee in Sydney for the last two years but lives in Orange.

He has been refereeing for five years and has had a quick rise in the ranks.

This year he was involved in the Shute Shield in Sydney and was able to work with international referees such as Steve Walsh, Nathan Pearce and Stu Dickinson.

The 41-year-old takes his refereeing seriously and trains five days a week, studies the laws two nights a week and also speaks with his referee coach, former international referee Peter Marshall, once a week.

Harding said refereeing the Over 35s gold medal game will be a highlight for him but he admitted to a few nerves.

“I thought I was right until Monday when I started thinking about it a bit more,” he said.

“I started to get a bit nervous and because I haven’t actually blown the whistle in a couple of weeks. I’m going to referee a couple of touch football games this week to get used to blowing the whistle and talking to players and get everything going again.”

The Over 35s gold medal match will be played this Saturday at Sydney’s TG Millner Field at 5pm.