To further develop his skills and to give him more minutes, Scharner was loaned to then-Austria affiliate club SG Untersiebenbrunn in the Erste Liga from July to October 2001, where he scored five goals in 16 league matches and also played in the ÖFB-Cup. He returned to his club in November and started getting minutes by the end of the month, playing against Rapid Wien, SV Salzburg and FC Kärnten. In the second half of the season he developed himself as a starter, seeing the kick-off in twelve of his 13 games, while seeing four yellow cards that season. He made his first goal for Austria Wien in a professional competition, opening the scoring in a Bundesliga match against Sturm Graz on 30 March. His strong away round also brought him into the Austrian national football team, debuting in a 0:0 against Cameroon on 17 April 2002.