in august 2004, harding was called up by england under-21, which he describe the moment that left him shocked. harding made his england u21 debut on 17 august 2004, in a 3–1 win over ukraine u21. after the match, harding was praised by manager taylor, quoting: ""i was pleased with dan. he has come on for 45 minutes and played very sensibly. he did not get beaten once."" his performance was also praised by the argus for his ""combining intelligent use of the ball with sound defending"". harding went to make three more appearances for england u21.