South African rugby union captains

Every player to captain the South Africa national rugby union team (Springboks) in a test match is listed here. Captains are listed in chronological order of their first match as captain.

Male

So far there has been 56 captains of the male Springbok team, with H.H. Castens captaining South Africa on 30 July 1891 in their first ever test against the touring British Isles team at Crusaders Cricket Ground in Port Elizabeth. John Smit was the last Springbok World Cup winning captain and also holds the record as the most capped captain in international rugby history. Fourie du Preez is the current, 56th captain of the team.

_	Player	Year first made captain
1	H.H. Castens	1891
2	Bob Snedden	1891
3	Alf Richards	1891
4	Ferdie Aston	1896
5	Fairy Heatlie	1896
6	Alex Frew	1903
7	Jackie Powell	1903
8	Paddy Carolin	1906
9	Paul Roos	1906
10	Dougie Morkel	1910
11	Billy Millar	1910
12	Uncle Dobbin	1912
13	T.B Pienaar	1921
14	Boy Morkel	1921
15	PK Albertyn	1924
16	Phil Mostert	1928
17	Bennie Osler	1931
18	Phil Nel	1933
19	Danie Craven	1937
20	Felix du Plessis	1949
21	Basil Kenyon	1949
22	Hennie Muller	1951
23	Stephen Fry	1955
24	Basie Viviers	1956
25	Salty du Rand	1956
26	Johan Claassen	1958
27	Des van Jaarsveldt	1960
28	Roy Dryburgh	1960
29	Avril Malan	1960
30	Abie Malan	1963
31	Nelie Smith	1964
32	Dawie de Villiers	1965
33	Tommy Bedford	1969
34	Hannes Marais	1971
35	Piet Greyling	1972
36	Morné du Plessis	1975
37	Theunis Stofberg	1980
38	Wynand Claassen	1981
39	Divan Serfontein	1984
40	Naas Botha	1986
41	Jannie Breedt	1989
42	Francois Pienaar	1993
43	Tiaan Strauss	1994
44	Adriaan Richter	1995
45	Gary Teichmann	1996
46	Corné Krige	1999
47	Rassie Erasmus	1999
48	Joost van der Westhuizen	1999
49	André Vos	1999
50	Bobby Skinstad	2001
51	John Smit	2003
52	Victor Matfield	2007
53	Johann Muller	2007
54	Jean de Villiers	2012
55	Schalk Burger	2015
56	Fourie du Preez	2015

Female

The South Africa women's national rugby union team, also called the Springboks, first played internationally in 2004, with a two match series against Wales held in South Africa. The first match was played at Adcock Stadium, Port Elizabeth on 29 May 2004, and resulted in a 5–8 loss.

_	Player	Years as Captain
1	Nomsebenzi Tsotsobe	2004 – 2010(?)