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Early start for Italy stars

1 February 2005, 2:45 pm

Italy coach John Kirwan left his players in no doubt how seriously he is taking the forthcoming RBS 6 Nations with an early training session on Monday.

Saturdays 31-14 victory in the All Star Game against the World XV in Catania was not sufficient to give the Azzurri a day off at the start of the week after returning to Rome on Sunday evening.

Kirwan woke his players up at 6am on Monday morning to begin training in preparation for their opening RBS 6 Nations game against Ireland on Sunday at the Stadio Flaminio.

Italian team manager Marco Bollesan said: After the game we decided to have an early morning training session.

It was not our regular training time but the players' concentration was very high.

It was an important training session, especially on a mental level, to start in the best way our final preparation phase for the Six Nations, where we want to have a starring role.

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