Lee was instrumental in the sides’ victory at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, and in the process became the first player from a South African team to cross the whitewash for a hat-trick of tries.

His second try in particular was one for the record books. The Kings won the ball from they own scrum and saw Rudi van Rooyen running sideways to get his off-load away. The Cheetahs scrumhalf, Shaun Venter, put in a big hit on Van Rooyen, which saw the ball being lost and snatched up by the winger, Makazole Mapimpi.

Mapimpi put in a smart off-load which sent Lee across the whitewash for the bonus point try in the third minute of the second half.

Lee’s performance wouldn’t suggest that the player had hardly played any rugby since sustaining an injury during the Super Rugby.

Following the match, Duncan sang that midfielders’ praises.

“Nico Lee is a special player. He has shown over the last couple of weeks that he is really one of South Africa’s top centres.

“He has come through nicely, he is one of our players who has come through the Cheetahs Academy.

“I must be honest, I am quite excited to have him in the squad after the last couple of week’s performances.”

Meanwhile, the Cheetahs discipline remains a cause for concern after Justin Basson, Charles Marais and Junior Pokomela all received yellow cards during the clash in Port Elizabeth. Marais and Pokomela went off the field at the same time which left the players with just 13-men on the park for a second game in a row.

Last week Torsten van Jaarsveld and Shaun Venter were binned during the 27-21 loss to Benetton Rugby in Treviso.

Duncan said that they will still decide on how to deal with the situation which has the potential of becoming a major problem.

“We ended up in the same situation as we did last week where we had 13-men on the field with 10 minutes to go.

“Fortunately it was something that we had discussed during the week. We said listen if it ever happens again, and I actually joked with the guys and said hopefully it doesn’t happen again.

“We will discuss how we will handle it, but I thought that the guys did extremely well under that pressure.

“They reacted well, they hung onto possession and managed to close out the game."

The Cheetahs tackle the Kings again on Saturday during their Pro14 return leg at the Toyota Stadium in Bloemfontein.

Morgan Piek/OFM Sport