Ospreys suffered a late defeat to Benetton at the Stadio Monigo as it looked like they would lose winger Max Nagy to a serious injury.

They traveled to Italy with a heavily changed squad, with just Nagy, Keiran Williams, Luke Morgan, Rhys Davies, James Fender and captain Morgan Morris remaining from last week’s victory over the Scarlets.

Without several of their World Cup stars for the final match of this first Rugby United Championship block before European action begins, they will leave Italy disappointed at not having achieved more than a mere loss of bonus points.

Benetton have won 15 of their last 20 home games, but for an hour it looked as if they would suffer a rare defeat in front of their own fans.

Dan Edwards’ goal gave Toby Booth’s side an early lead, but Benetton took the lead at half-time thanks to Bautista Berlasconi’s goal.

However, a fine individual goal from Nagy shortly after the restart gave them the lead, although the Ospreys later lost the talented full-back to what appeared to be a serious injury.

They continued and Luke Davies, halfway through, crossed them.

Jacob Umaga’s goal brought the home side level before an ill-timed rebound from a free kick saw the ball ricochet off Owen Williams and go wide.

That put the Italian side in an attacking position to take the lead and a brave Ospreys defense was unable to hold on when substitute Giacomo Da Re came off with four minutes remaining.

The Ospreys fought back to find the winning score but had to settle for a missed bonus point.