Ospreys were easily beaten 37-14 at Zebre, paying the expected price for making 13 changes in their PRO14 clash.
Only Adam Beard and Sam Cross were retained from the side which lost at Ulster last time out and the resulting defeat was hardly a surprise in the circumstances.
Home winger Mattia Bellina ran in a hat-trick of tries, with further touchdowns from George Biagi, Giulio Bisegni and Gabriele Di Giulio.
Cross and Reuben Morgan-Williams crossed the try-line in response for Ospreys, both successfully converted by Sam Davies.
Had Carlo Canna been as accurate for Zebre the scale of victory might have been even heavier, but he slotted only two of his conversion attempts to go with his one penalty.
In recording a sixth win of the season, the Italian outfit outperformed their previous best performance in the competition.
They remain bottom of Conference A, two points behind Connacht and eight shy of Ospreys.
The Welsh side's interim coach Allen Clarke endured a tricky night but will have learned something after giving first starts to winger Dylan Moss and back-row Giorgi Nemsadze, as well as blooding Dewi Lake from the bench.