Port Elizabeth - The Kings have announced the first group of squad members who will competing in the first ever PRO14 from September.

Among the big names is Stormers and Western Province flyhalf Kurt Coleman, who will represent the Kings for the tournament.

Kings head coach Deon Davids said the side had called on a number of unions to help out with players.

"We’ll be starting this process of putting together a squad all over again. We lost a number of our squad from the Super Rugby campaign, and we are busy putting together a new, competitive squad," he said.

"We have identified a large group of players and we have communicated, through our office, to the different unions regarding the players we would like to be here.

"The players that have joined us already are the ones that have been released from their duties at those unions. There are some players whom we are still awaiting the response of their various unions to release them as soon as possible."

The Southern Kings squad started to gather at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium this week to begin preparations for the opening match against PRO14 defending champions, the Scarlets.

Davids has stressed the importance of long-term signings for the Southern Kings in order to maintain continuity.

"Most of the guys that we have signed now we tried to get for two years so that we do not sit in the same position again - where we will have to scramble for players, and also because Super Rugby is still ongoing while we will be in our off-season preparing for the start of the next season," the coach said.

"We would have loved to wait for more players coming off-contract at the end of October, but we would have played eight games up until then, so we will have to prepare sufficiently now to ensure that we have a squad that has depth. I’ll be starting on a clean slate. If a player puts up his hand, I’ll back him."

All players are being medically screened this week as part of the contracting process.

Kings PRO14 squad so far:

Berton Klaasen, Bobby de Wee, CJ Velleman, Cornal Hendricks, Dries van Schalkwyk, Jacques Nel, Jarryd Sage, Khaya Majola, Lubabalo Mtyanda, Lusanda Badiyana, Masixole Banda, Ntabeni Dukisa, Oliver Zono, Pieter-Steyn de Wet, Rowan Gouws, Sbusiso Sithole, Schalk Ferreira, Stephan Greeff, Tango Balekile, Tienie Burger, Victor Sekekete, Yaw Penxe, Kurt Coleman