Coach Deon Davids has announced a 27-man Kings squad for their two-week Super Rugby tour of New Zealand.

The Port Elizabeth-based franchise will face the Crusaders in Christchurch, followed by a game against the Hurricanes in Wellington. Davids says while it's tough playing against two of the competition's leading sides, he is looking forward to the tour.

'It's going to be a challenging tour but it is also a great opportunity to grow as a team both on and off the field and to focus on some of the areas that still need work,' Davids said.

This included working on players' concentration for the duration of the game and minimising errors, especially in the 10 minutes before and after half-time.

'We will also need to work on our kicking and to be more clinical and patient when we have the ball,' he added.

Kings touring squad – Schalk Ferreira, Jacobie Adriaanse, Sti Sithole, Tom Botha, Justin Ackerman, Edgar Marutlule, Martin Bezuidenhout, Martin Ferreira, Steven Sykes (c), JC Astle, Schalk Oelofse, Chris Cloete, CJ Velleman, Thembelani Bholi, Stephan Willemse, Jacques Engelbrecht, Ntando Kebe, Kevin Luiters, Leighton Eksteen, Elgar Watts, Louis Fouché, Shane Gates, Stefan Watermeyer, Malcolm Jaer, Luzuko Vulindlu, Jürgen Visser, JP Du Plessis.

Photo: Richard Huggard/Gallo Images