Italy finished bottom of the Six Nations standings last time out with five defeats out of five, and their schedule for this year suggests it could be another difficult campaign for the Azzurri.

They have three away trips - against Ireland, Wales and France - and only the two home matches, against 2003 World Cup winners England and Scotland.

Many are tipping the match against Scotland to be the battle for the wooden spoon and while Griffen admits Italy are targeting that as the key game of the championship, he believes they can also upset the Irish.

I'm really looking forward to this years RBS 6 Nations, he said. I have enjoyed my time in the last two tournaments.

We are a young and competitive team but the calendar appears to be against us. To win the first game in Dublin against Ireland will be hard for us, but not impossible, he added.

You never know what will happen in the opening game, maybe a surprise will come.

After the Ireland match, Italy host England in Rome before going back on the road again to meet France and defending Six Nations champions Wales, two matches Griffen concedes will be extremely tough.

In Cardiff we are going to face one of the best teams at present, they are in form and they will want to get all the home points they can, he said.

In Paris against France it is going to be very hard, although not impossible and we must play at our very best to impress everybody.

Playing against England at the Flaminio will be a bonus for our fans to see a great opponent, but victory against the reigning world champions appears to be difficult.

Those matches lead up to arguably Italys most important match of the championship - against the Scots in the final round of fixtures.

Scotland finished one spot above Italy last season courtesy of an 18-10 win over the Azzurri at Murrayfield, and Griffen is gunning for revenge.

At last the game which we must win, he said. We play at home against Scotland, we play the last game against them which is likely to decide who will hold the 2006 wooden spoon. So we must win, we must play at our best, we must make our fans happy.