Brad Johnstone has been sacked as coach of the Italian national rugby side, it has emerged today.

Italy retained the Six Nations wooden spoon again this year and their New Zealand coach took much of the flack from both players and officials.

"It is true that Brad Johnstone is no longer in charge of the national side, " an Italian Federation spokesperson told BBC Sport Online.

"We hope to announce Italy's new coach later today."

Italy have won just once in their three seasons of Six Nations rugby and that was their very first game in the competition - against Scotland. It's been all down hill since then.

It became clear that Johnstone had lost the respect of his players earlier this year when fly-half Diego Dominguez expressed his dismay.

An FIR source said that it was "very unlikely" that Johnstone's contract would be renewed and fellow Kiwi John Kirwan is tipped to take over.