Cheetahs sprint clear with hat-trick from Lee

A HAT-TRICK from Nico Lee helped the Cheetahs thrash the Southern Kings in the first South African PRO14 derby.

A first-half blitz saw the visitors turn around 24-7 ahead thanks to tries from Clayton Blommetjies, Lee and Shaun Venter.

Lee bagged his brace after the restart before making it three of a kind, and Jacques du Toit made sure of the victory to move the Bloemfontein side ten points clear of the Cardiff Blues in Conference A.

Kings looked to be mustering a second-half fightback, but scores from Yaw Penxe, Eital Bredenkamp and a penalty try were not enough to earn a first win of the season.

The contest got off to a flying start as Blommetjies’ try after five minutes was cancelled out moments later by Penxe.

Fred Zeilinga then kicked a penalty to make it 10-7 to the Cheetahs, before Lee went over from closerange. His half-back partner Venter, barged through three defenders to take the visitors ten points clear. Kings finished the half strongly but were caught out when Lee picked off a pass to sprint home.

Back rower Bredenkamp started a promising fightback for Kings after half-time, helped by Cheetahs’ centre Charles Marais bringing down a maul and conceding a penalty try.

Cheetahs flanker Junior Pokomela saw yellow in the act of conceding the score, but even with 13 men, they completed the rout thanks to Lee’s hat-trick score and du Toit’s late try.