It is considered one of the highest honours when your head coach deems you worthy of leading your respective team onto the rugby pitch as captain
Taking on the leadership responsibilities on behalf of the squad is no small matter, with your attitude towards your team and your choices determining whether you are remembered as a hero or a villain.
However, not everyone leaves the armband by their own accord and is instead stripped of their responsibility.
1. Lawrence Dallaglio (England)
He was given the England captaincy in the autumn of 1997 by new coach Clive Woodward, taking over from Phil de Glanville. The other candidate for the job, Martin Johnson, had led the Lions tour, but Dallaglio was preferred.
Two years later, Dallaglio was stripped of the captaincy after a newspaper sting saw him making claims of youthful drug experiences, which he subsequently denied.
2. Magnus Bradbury (Edinburgh)
The back-row was stripped of the Edinburgh captaincy following an internal investigation into an off-field incident in 2017. BRadbury suffered a late-night injury while out in Edinburgh on a day off.
3. Pablo Matera (Argentina)
In December 2020, he was stripped of the Argentina captaincy and suspended along with two team-mates for "discriminatory and xenophobic" comments in historical social media posts.
The Argentine Rugby Union (UAR) says it "strongly repudiates" comments made by Matera as well as Guido Petti and Santiago Socino between 2011 and 2013.
Strangely, three days later he was reinstated.
4. Ryan Jones (Wales)
Warren Gatland punished Jones for 2007's "embarrassing" draw against Fiji by handing the captain's armband to Matthew Rees. Jones conceded the decisive penalty to the South Sea Islanders and found himself directly in the firing line of his furious Welsh coach.
