Southern Kings, the sixth Super Rugby franchise in South Africa, has plumbed a new depth with coach Brent Janse van Rensburg resigning his position with the Eastern Province Rugby Union.

Janse van Rensburg was to have coached the Kings through the 2016 Super Rugby season, after leading Eastern Province in the 2015 Currie Cup,and his departure is but the latest bad news about the expansion franchise.

The Kings were readmitted to the competition as part of a three-team expansion for the 2016 tournament, alongside Argentina and Japan's Sunwolves, but New Zealand legend Carlos Spencer left his position as assistant coach almost immediately amid reports of financial troubles and the Union has struggled to pay players.

SARugbymag reported that Janse van Rensburg had departed the franchise "with unpaid salaries stretching back for at least two months", while as many as six players, including Kings captain Tim Whitehead, have quit in the past month due to the financial crisis, resulting from the failure to secure sponsorship, that has seen South African Rugby take charge of the franchise. SARugbymag reports that Janse van Rensburg will be taking up a role with Boland.

"We appreciate Brent's commitment to the task assigned to him and the many hours he worked in preparing the team for various competitions this year," Eastern Province Rugby president Cheeky Watson said in a statement that offered no explanation for Janse van Rensburg's resignation.

The news of Janse van Rensburg's departure delivered a secondary punch after reports of an anonymous post on social media, allegedly from a Kings player, saying that Watson would "Give Hitler a run for his money".

Kings scrum-half Kevin Luiters has also posted on Facebook to says the team had become the "laughing stock of SA rugby".

Luiters subsequently told Rugby365 that his post "was not a selfish rant, but an attempt to help his teammates" ... that his words on Facebook were not malicious in any sense, nor were they a rant or emotional outcry."

"[My post] was in good faith towards the game that we all love, that we would like to practice as soon as possible - seeing as we [the Kings] are re-entering Super Rugby next year," he told Rugby365.