Bath Rugby are staring down the barrel of an early exit in the Investec Champions Cup after a second successive tight loss in the competition on Sunday, going down 22-21 away at Italian side Benetton.

With Bath head of rugby Johaan van Graan rotating his side, the hosts took full advantage, scoring three first-half tries as Rhyno Smith grabbed a brace while Louis Lynagh also touched down in the corner. Bath did find a try, thanks to Niall Annett, but went into halftime trailing 17-7. The visitors responded with two tries in the second half to take the lead 21-17 with Josh Bayliss and Thomas du Toit crossing, but a late maul try from Bautista Bernasconi gave Benetton a stunning win.

The result leaves the Blue, Black and White sitting fifth of the six teams in Pool 2, with two losing bonus points in the bank. The top four sides advance to the last 16 knockout stages, with Bath scheduled to play Clermont at the Recreation Ground and Leinster at the Aviva Stadium in January. The Premiership leaders are now going to need to beat the French side at home to have any prayer of sneaking through and likely have to go to Dublin looking for match points from the game. A daunting feat for any side against the four time champions who have also been losing finalists for the last three years.

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Van Graan rung the changes with 11 in the starting side changed from last weekend's 24-20 home defeat to recent tournament winners La Rochelle, and despite that the away side dominated possession in the opening exchanges however Bath went down early to the Italians as Benetton executed some rare field position to cross the whitewash first. A linebreak from Malakai Fekitoa resulted in a penalty before the hosts recycled possession and went wide, with Rhyno Smith scoring after a lovely wide play and a key final pass back inside from Onisi Ratave who survived the attempt to drive him into touch by Regan Grace on his Champions Cup debut.

A second try for the hosts followed swiftly as more poor indiscipline gave the Italians more territory inside Bath's 22. Another lineout and quick ball later, and soon space opened up in the wide channels with former Quins winger Louis Lynagh to score in the corner.

Bath responded; however, after some neat defensive work from Ethan Staddon, van Graan's men were allowed to get some territory in Benetton's half. A successful lineout followed, and the visitors rolled forward before a quick tap penalty forced the Italians into making mistakes, with Niall Annett crossing from short-range for a needed try.

With the visitors coming back to life, the Italians stunned Bath with an intercept try as Rhyno Smith picked off Orlando Bailey as the fly-half raced away with an overlap on, out-sprinting Cam Redpath with the aid of a late goosestep, to shift the momentum back to the hosts and give them their third try of the first half to lead 17-7 at the break.

Having been fairly sloppy in the first 40, the visitors sharpened up with van Graan's introducing his own bomb squad with du Toit, Jaco Coetzee and Quinn Roux all adding power as Bath came to life.

A great break from Cam Redpath and then offload to Miles Reid gave Bath some rare attacking go-forward before the captain found Josh Bayliss, who bulldozed his over for a crucial score, with Bailey adding the extras.

The game was changing, and Bath had to come to life, and soon the English side were finding holes and playing their power game with the hosts scoffing up penalties before close range drive from du Toit gave Bath their third try and the lead. However, despite taking the lead, it was Benetton who found a second wind to burst into life and stretch Bath to the brink.

With Max Ojomoh in the sin bin for a deliberate knock-on, the visitors faced relentless waves of attack . Nacho Brex crossed for Benetton who they looked to have won the game, but the centre lost control, and Bath took a sigh of relief. But this would not last long as an unfortunate penalty against Redpath in the final moments gave the Italians one last chance to win, which they did not miss as a rolling maul gave Bernasconi the winning try to break Bath hearts and leave them winless in the group.

Benetton Rugby: 15. Rhyno Smith, 14. Louis Lynagh, 13. Tommaso Menoncello, 12. Malakai Fekitoa, 11. Onisi Ratave, 10. Tomas Albornoz, 9. Andy Uren, 1. Mirco Spagnolo, 2. Siua Maile, 3. Simone Ferrari, 4. Niccolo Cannone, 5. Federico Ruzza (c), 6. Sebastian Negri, 7. Manuel Zuliani, 8. Toa Halafihi

Replacements: 16. Bautista Bernasconi, 17. Thomas Gallo, 18. Tiziano Pasquali, 19. Riccardo Favretto, 20. Alessandro Izekor, 21. Alessandro Garbisi, 22. Jacob Umaga, 23. Nacho Brex

Bath Rugby: 15. Tom de Glanville, 14. Regan Grace, 13. Max Ojomoh, 12. Cameron Redpath, 11. Ruaridh McConnochie, 10. Orlando Bailey, 9. Louis Schreuder, 1. Francois van Wyk, 2. Niall Annett, 3. Billy Sela, 4. Ewan Richards, 5. Ross Molony, 6. Josh Bayliss, 7. Ethan Staddon, 8. Miles Reid (c)

Replacements: 16. Kepu Tuipulotu, 17. Arthur Cordwell, 18. Thomas du Toit, 19. Quinn Roux, 20. Ted Hill, 21. Tom Carr-Smith, 22. Louie Hennessey, 23. Jaco Coetzee