Jonker, who will be officiating at the Rugby World Cup later this year, will take charge of the first Australia-New Zealand clash of the year, when the 1991 and 1999 world champions host the All Blacks at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday.

It will be Jonker's first Bledisloe Cup match in charge, having last year had a taste by serving as compatriot Jonathan Kaplan's touch judge in Christchurch - a game the rampant ABs won 32-12.

"This is a big moment for me," said a proud Jonker to sareferees.co.za this week, just hours before his departure for Australia.

"As a referee, this has always been one of my goals - it doesn't get much bigger than this."

And Jonker - who turned 38 last week - is very grateful for the opportunity, adding: "Chances like this don't come around every day."

As an added bonus for Jonker, who earlier this year reffed the RBS Six Nations opener between England and Scotland, he will have countrymen Kaplan and Willie Roos 'running the lines' with him as touch judges.

"It will help settle the nerves," said Jonker. "I'm sure Jonathan will assist wherever he can and I won't be surprised to hear a few Afrikaans chirps from Willie coming through the mic... most probably something along the lines of, 'Check out the girl in row three!'. Also, Shaun Veldsman is the TMO on Saturday - so it's a full South African flavour."

Whilst Saturday's match is shaping up as one of the bigger matches in his short Test career to date - as he himself says, "there is a lot at stake", Marius intends on remaining as relaxed and composed as ever ahead of the Bledisloe Cup battle.

"I love the pressure and adrenaline that comes with reffing at this level," he enthused. "[But] you can only referee what's dished up to you. It's not as easy as it looks, but my plan is to make it look that bit easier! There's no point changing what I've done to get to this level and that's what I intend doing come Saturday."

And on the game itself, Jonker added: "It has all the ingredients of a big one... There's a lot at stake, the All Blacks have just come off a win against the Springboks in South Africa and the Wallabies need a win, especially at home, to stay alive in the competition."

Of course, once he gets past this weekend, Marius will edge that bit nearer to the World Cup in France, which sees him follow even closer in the footsteps of André Watson, who refereed two successive World Cup Finals, and Jonathan Kaplan, who is set to officiate at his third RWC in a row.

"It's a nice honour," said Jonker. "André and Tappe (Henning), in particular, have moulded me, along with Freek (Burger), and I'm very lucky to have had their support. Just the other day I jokingly said to André, 'Maybe you'll make a ref out of me one day!'."

Marius Jonker fact file:

Full name: Marius Jonker
Date and place of birth: June 19, 1969 in Kimberley.
Occupation: Loss Control Manager for Bell Equipment in Richards Bay.
Family: Married to Belinda with a son Rynhardt of six and daughter Brenda of 13 months.
Playing career: Played first division rugby for Maritzburg Police (Pietermaritzburg), North Coast Rhinos (Empangeni) and Richards Bay Rugby Clubs as a fly-half.
Started refereeing: 2000
Referees' society: Zululand Referees' Society, a sub-society of KwaZulu Natal Referees' Society.
Career highlights to date: IRB Under-19 World Cup (2004), IRB Under-21 World Cup (2005), Super 14, Currie Cup, Ireland v Australia (2006 - the last Test at the old Lansdowne Road).
First Test: Fiji v Italy in 2006