Benetton 46 Glasgow Warriors 19 Danny Wilson admitted to being shell-shocked after watching his Warriors team being dismantled in almost every facet of the game against a youthful Benetton side.

They played with the sort of intelligence and conviction that suggests some happier days could be round the corner following a torrid few years for Italian rugby. As heartening as the home team’s performance will be for neutral supporters of the sport, there must be recognition that they were up against a hopelessly incompetent rabble on this occasion, who coughed up possession far too easily and showed no real appetite in either attack or defence until it was far too late.

Benetton will face much tougher challenges in the weeks and months ahead, while Warriors must improve exponentially if they are to avoid becoming a laughing stock.

Three tries for the visitors in the last 13 minutes – including two in the last five minutes after Benetton had gone into warm-down mode – gave the scoreline a respectability that did not properly reflect the overall balance of play.

“I’m a bit shell-shocked, probably like most people," conceded head coach Wilson afterwards.

"I didn’t see that performance coming. I thought we had a decent week training and came into the game in a reasonable place, and we had picked enough experienced players to go with the younger players, so it’s an embarrassing performance, as simple as that.

"It's the worst performance since I’ve been here, no doubt about that, from any team we have put out.

“It looks to me like we haven’t turned up. We just didn’t fire in any area. We were error-ridden, we defended poorly, attacked poorly … we need to get to the bottom of where that has come from and put it right pretty quickly going into a derby in a couple of weeks.

“The boys spoke in the changing room as honestly as I am speaking to you about it. They’ve not tried to gloss over it, the leaders have spoken and said it is a dark day that can’t happen again. We need to get to the bottom of where that came from and more importantly make sure it doesn’t happen again.

It started badly and went downhill from there for the way team. Warriors coughed up a try inside three minutes when Marco Zanon blocked Sam Johnson's grubber then gathered the ball himself, before feeding back inside for Monty Ioane to streak home from 70 yards, fending off a despairing tackle from Cole Forbes on the way.

Just four minutes later, Niccolo Cannone wrong-footed George Horne with an outrageous dummy, then swatted the Warriors scrum-half away like a fly as he tried to retrieve the situation, on his way to an excellent try.

Benetton's scoring rate then slowed down, but they continued to dominate in every area, and it was only really a matter of time until they stretched their lead out to 21 points, thanks to Cannone showing up in midfield again to gallop home from 20 yards.

There was a 'captain's challenge' – the first time this law variation trial has been exercised by a Scottish team – because Zander Fagerson felt he had been illegally cleared-out at the ruck, but the video evidence didn't support that, and the score stood.

Garbisi extended Benetton’s advantage early in the second half by slotting a penalty after Fagerson was penalised for entering a ruck from the side.

Warriors thought they had taken a nibble out of Benetton's commanding when Cole Forbes streaked home on the hour mark, but a 'captain's challenge' showed that Sam Johnson's arm had made contact with Leonardo Sarto's head earlier in the passage of play, so the try was chalked off and Benetton were awarded a penalty.

To compound Warriors' misery, the hosts scored off the ensuing line-out, with Halafihi bursting over and then Michele Lamaro muscled over to make it 38-0 in the 66th minute.

There was finally a moment of relief for Warriors when Sarto lost control of the ball as he dived in for what would have been Benetton's sixth unanswered try and Keatley had the presence of mind to send his quick goal-line drop-out on a flat angle to unmarked Forbes on the left wing, and the New Zealander had the gas to make it home from 90 metres.

Warriors’ humiliation wasn't over yet, because with seven minutes still on the clock, replacement hooker Gianmarco Lucchesi went over from a close-range line-out.

Benetton spent the final four minutes with 14 men after Garbrisi was sent to the sin-bin for a deliberate knock-on, and Keatley and Nick Grigg claimed two late tries. Good on the visitors for not capitulating completely, but it was too little and too late.

Benetton saw the game out with an injury time Edoardo Padovani penalty after a Warriors obstruction.