The 2004 Triple Crown winners will travel to the Flaminio Stadium on February 6 full of confidence after their impressive recent displays against South Africa and Argentina.

I'm sure the 2005 RBS 6 Nations could be the tournament where we have the best opportunity to do well in a major rugby championship, said Bollesan.

The first game against Ireland will be a difficult one and they are coming to Rome as favourites but our passionate fans will make it difficult for them.

Bollesan has also paid tribute to the fitness work Italian rugby legend John Kirwan has carried out with the Azzurri and believes that they are in the best physical shape possible for the clash.

We are taking 30 strong players with us into the RBS 6 Nations tournament who worked very hard, especially during this summertime, and now they are ready for an important tournament like the RBS 6 Nations, he added.

John (Kirwan) and his staff did a wonderful job and they also selected some of the best players from the Under-21s to train with the senior squad, with the intention of giving them experience which is good for the future of Italian and of course for them too, especially with the RBS coming up and the World Cup in France in 2007.

The Italians have sought to rectify the problems they encountered with their three-quarter line at last years World Cup and have recruited Tim Lane, the Australian assistant coach from the 1999 World Cup winning team, onto their backroom staff.

But Bollesan believes the usual favourites of England, France and Ireland will contest the title, while the Welsh could also pose a threat.

Sadly we had problems in our three quarters line in the past, but we are doing our very best to solve this and the employment of a coach like Tim Lane shows the ambitions of our federation," he said.

I'm sure the battle for the trophy will be between France and England even if they will come into the competition with somewhat younger teams.

Also Ireland will benefit from the experience of keeping more or less the same team from the World Cup, but these three teams need to be very careful of the Welsh who really impressed me a lot this year alongside the Argentinians.

But we are also capable of producing a surprise and so are the Scots.

The Italian coach feels the RBS 6 Nations is just as important as the World Cup.

I really believe the RBS 6 Nations is one of the greatest rugby tournaments in the world alongside the World Cup, he added.

Even the famous Tri-Nations can't be considered to be on the same level of these two huge tournaments. Certainly the atmosphere you get in the RBS 6 Nations is unbelievable and to be part of it is a great experience.