Kirwan is under contract until the 2007 Rugby World Cup but failure to win a game at the 2005 RBS 6 Nations has put his position in doubt.

The Italian Rugby Federation had initially planned a meeting this week to decide if Kirwan will remain in the job.

''The council will meet in two weeks to decide John Kirwan's future, said federation president Giancarlo Dondi.

The meeting was fixed for the end of this week but after the Popes death, we decided to move it for the next week.

Wins over Wales and Scotland the past two years had fuelled hopes in Italy of a successful RBS 6 Nations campaign but the Azzurri had to settle for the wooden spoon for the first time under All Black legend Kirwan.

''Finishing the tournament without a win is not a pleasant experience for anybody but we can learn from this and we are working hard to make our team more competitive and we are doing our very best achieve it,'' Dondi said.

Dondi believes Italy simply ran out of gas in their games this year.

''We have to get better after 40 minutes if we want go all the way because in each game I saw the same old story from my team, he said.

We start well, play a good game and concede less to our opponents but in the second half we are always making too many mistakes and giving away too much space.

I know we are playing with best teams in the world but we have to start at our best and finish at our very best if we want to be ambitious.''