THREE soft penalties conceded during the final 90 seconds of this match saw Glasgow Warriors go from two points up and in control of possession deep inside their opponents 22, to standing helplessly by as 19-year-old stand-off Leonardo Marin kicked the home team to a victory which could have major consequences in terms of qualification to both this season’s United Rugby Championship play-offs and next season’s European Champions Cup. 

It was a shocking exhibition of how to mastermind your own downfall but defeated head coach Danny Wilson pointed out that the seeds of this defeat had been sewn much earlier in the contest – and conceded that they are indicative of an issue which has haunted the side throughout his tenure at the club.    

A charitable analysis would be that this performance and result provided a demonstration of the progress Glasgow Warriors have made in the last seven months. They have gone from being spineless when they lost 46-19 here back in April to careless in this much tighter enounter – but that provided Wilson with little comfort in the aftermath of this bruising loss. 

"Due to terrible discipline, we spent the whole of the second half inside our own 22," he lamented. "The effort is there. It is excellent. There is lot of doggedness to hold on and not cave on our own try-line. But the number of penalties we gave away to put ourselves in a position to lose that game is not good enough. 

“With a minute and a half to go, we manage to go from their try-line and give away a penalty for a contact area infringement, a penalty for a high tackle and a penalty for throwing ourselves across the line-out. They are just ridiculous penalties which have handed them the game, if I am being honest with you. 

“We also need to learn the lesson because we speak about discipline too often, and today we probably deserved what we got.” 

The match started badly for the visitors because they allowed Rhyno Smith to rise unchallenged to collect George Horne's clearance box-kick then failed to lay a glove on the Benetton full-back as he waltzed home for the opening try with just 35 seconds played. 

To their credit, Warriors bounced back, with winger Rufus McLean making some amends for a few uncharacteristic errors in the opening minutes by chasing down Ross Thompson's clever kick and bundling Eduardo Padovani back over his own try-line, establishing the field position for Jack Dempsey to charge over the try-line a few tight phases later. 

Thompson couldn't manage the conversion from halfway between the posts and the left touchline, but he had no problem taking the three easy points on offer a few minutes later when Benetton were penalised for preventing Horne from getting the ball away quickly from a ruck in front of the posts. 

That put the visitors ahead, but only briefly, with a Matt Fagerson offside straight from the restart allowing the hosts to kick to the corner, and although the line-out drive was scrappy, Giovanni Pettinelli sniffed out an opportunity coming back towards the right touchline and spun off to score.  

Marin missed both those early conversions but did kick an offside penalty just past the half hour mark, before Warriors reclaimed the lead just before the break when a line-out drive trotted all the way to the scoring zone against some feeble Benetton resistance, allowing Rory Darge to get the downward pressure, with Thompson converting. 

When Benetton lost their captain Michele Lamaro to the sin-bin after three minutes of the second half for playing the ball on the deck, and Thompson kicked the penalty, it looked like Warriors were poised to take control of this match. However, despite having an extra man for the next 10 minutes, they found themselves hemmed back inside their 22 – and that’s where they stayed for almost all the rest of the match. 

A Marin penalty on 63 minutes brought it back to a two-point game, but he then missed an opportunity to put his team ahead following a Warriors offside and it looked like the visitors might hold on for a valuable away win – until that appalling late collapse. 

“Horrendous – but there was a lot in that game which were penalties we should never give away," added Wilson. "We need to learn the lesson because we speak about discipline too often. We need to learn the lesson because those sorts of scenarios are continually hurting us. 

“When we look back, we will look at the individuals who gave away the penalties away," he added. “There are two types of penalty – there are dumb ones and ones when you take a gamble that doesn’t pay off. It is the dumb penalties we need to stop giving away. So, we need to look back and say which ones were dumb and which ones weren’t." 

Benetton: R Smith; R Tavuyara, T Menoncello, L Morisi (J Riera 53), E Padovani; L Marin, D Duvenage (A Garbisi, 70); F Zani (T Baravalle 54), G Lucchesi (C Els 54), T Pasquali (I Nemer  41), C Wegner (N Cannone 54), F Ruzza, G Pettinelli, M Lamaro,, T Halafihi (M Zuliani 48).
Scorers: Tries Smith (1min), Pettinelli (20) Pen Marin 3 (31, 63, 82). 

Glasgow Warriors: C Forbes; K Steyn, S Tuipulotu, S Johnson, R McLean (O Smith 66); R Thompson (D Weir 66), G Horne (J Dobie 53); J Bhatti (N McBeth 77), G Turner (J Matthews 66), O Kebble (E Pieretto 46), R Harley (K McDonald 53), R Gray, M Fagerson (T Gordon 74), R Darge, J Dempsey. Scorers: Tries Demspey (6), Darge 33) Con Thompson (34) Pen Thompson 2 (18, 44). 

Referee: Marius can der Westhuizen 

Yellow cards – Benetton: Lamaro (43mins)