Caerphilly coach Mark Ring has been doing his best to try to find out some information about his side's PARKER PEN SHIELD opponents Rugby Rovigo.
'I asked my former Cardiff team mate Andy Moore, who played in Italy for three seasons, if he could get me a tape of them playing this season, but he couldn't help,' said Ring.
'I've tried every avenue I know to get something to look at, but I've drawn a blank. That means we will be stepping into the unknown when we travel this weekedn.
'We will have to concentrate on our own game and hope we can cope with whatever they throw at us in the first leg. We went to GRAN Parma last season and managed to squeeze home by a point, so we know it's not going to be easy.
'Parma played at very high pace and we weren't used to that. Rovigo will probably have a similar style and one of the biggest difficulties we will have to overcome is the fact we haven't played for a month.'
Ring's side came very close to causing an upset in the second leg of their first round match in the PARKER PEN CHALLENGE CUP when they scored five tries at The Stoop when they went down 31-27 at the hands of NEC Harlequins.
'We played total rugby at the Harlequins and it was a great performance. We lost the home leg 73-20 and we knew we had to make amends,' said Ring.
'We scored five tries and scared them to death. If we hadn't missed nearly all of our kicks I think we would have won.
'Now we have to concentrate on winning. We haven't managed that in 10 games to date this season, but we haven't been far away.
'We don't fear anyone and I know that a morale boosting victory is just around the corner. We need to target two victories in the PARKER PEN SHIELD to reach the quarter-finals.'
Former Wales full back Justin Thomas will face a hectic journey to Rovigo. A schoolteacher by day, he will fly out to Italy the day after the rest of his team mates because he can't get time off work.
'It's not ideal. Both Justin and our prop Lee Manning are travelling late on Friday night because of work commitments,' said Ring.
'Those are the sort of things we have to deal with as a semi-professional outfit. It's not ideal, but we'll all be raring to go by kick-off.'
