The Kaikorai Valley College assistant principal will coach the New Zealand Touch Blacks mixed team at the 2024 Touch World Cup in Nottingham.
He is part of a 10-strong Otago crew who will contest the tournament.
Otago touch manager Toni Wall is managing the New Zealand men’s team.
Atawhai Hotene, Molly Wheeley and Mariana Winiana are in the mixed team, Meg Sycamore and Trisha Hopcroft are in the women’s team and Naomi Ireland Tupa’i, Jarrod Powell and Shane Scott in the Touch Blacks senior (over-30s) mixed team.
The event runs from July 15 to 21.
Some of the group are staying on in Europe afterwards and have trips planned. But Burden will have to return to his day job and he is hoping to bring back a gold medal for "show and tell".
The experienced coach has been with the Touch Blacks since 2016. He had a stint with the men’s side and the mixed team collected a silver medal at the last World Cup in Kuala Lumpur.
"I’m hoping to get that elusive gold," he said.
"The last transtasman series we lost to Australia, but we know the gap is pretty small and we are feeling pretty good with the progress we are making."
"In international touch, New Zealand and Australia are the favourites to be in that World Cup final. The rest of the world is definitely closing the gap and there has been some really good stuff happen internationally.
"But we know we’ve got the talent and we’ve definitely got the firepower ... as do Aussie.
"But we are feeling pretty good about our chances of going one better than we have in last few World Cups as a mixed team."
Burden is an Otago coach, so he is very familiar with his charges and what they are capable of.
"It is certainly exciting for Otago to have so many people representing us over there," he said, adding Wall would bring up her 50th test as manager while at the tournament.
"This will be her third World Cup that she has been to and she’ll get her 50th cap, which is pretty massive because it is a sport where you don’t get a lot of games every year."
Burden believes the mixed team have not won gold since 2007 "and we are pretty keen to turn that around".
If they come up short Burden does have a gold medal for "show and tell". He won gold as a player with the senior mixed team in 2011.
