John Kirwan is hoping to create more World Cup history when he leads his Italian charges to Australia.

Kirwan is remarkably one of only a handful of New Zealanders to have ever lifted the World Cup - the All Blacks won the inaugural tournament back in 1987.

And although the Azzurri do not hold quite so lofty ambitions as winning the Web Ellis Trophy, Kirwan is keen for them to get beyond the group stages for the first time in their history.

Italy have been drawn alongside New Zealand, Wales, Canada and Tonga and face a punishing schedule of four matches in 14 days, starting against the All Blacks on October 11 and concluding against Wales on October 25.

In comparison New Zealand play their matches over 23 days but having made his protests, Kirwan insists he and his players simply have to draw a line under the matter.

It will be a largely young squad who make the trip Down Under following decisions by Diego Dominguez and Paolo Vaccari to step down from the international scene.

Italy will certainly be tested to the full in their quest for a quarter-final place and will been keen to erase the memories of the 1999 competition in Wales where they failed to register a single win and were hammered 101-3 by the All Blacks.

Squad: Matteo Barbini, Andrea Benatti, Mauro Bergamasco, Mirco Bergamasco, Cristian Bezzi, Marco Bortolami, Gonzalo Canale, Martin Castrogiovanni, Carlo Checchinato, Denis Dallan, Manuel Dallan, Santiago Dellape, Andrea De Rossi, Carlo Festuccia, Andrea Lo Cicero, Ramiro Martinez, Andrea Masi, Matteo Mazzantini, Francesco Mazzariol, Nicola Nazzucato, Fabio Ongaro, Scott Palmer, Sergio Parisse, Gert Peens, Aaron Persico, Salvatore Perugini, Matthew Phillips, Alessandro Stoica, Alessandro Troncon, Rima Wakarua, Vincenzo Zullo.