Wigan and Great Britain rugby league legend Billy Boston immortalised in new Cardiff statue

‘Rugby Codebreakers,’ designed by sculptor Steve Winterburn, celebrates three legendary Welsh rugby league players.

A public vote selected Boston, along with Clive Sullivan and Gus Risman, to be immortalised in Cardiff Bay.

The official Wales Rugby League Twitter account wrote: “There will be few greater moments than seeing Billy Boston in front of his own statue in Cardiff Bay, the home he left nearly 70 years ago for a new adventure at Wigan.

The new statue becomes the first in Wales to feature non-fictionalised, named black men.

Calls from the Butetown and wider Cardiff Bay community saw the ‘One Team. One Race: Honouring the Cardiff Bay Rugby Codebreakers’ project set up in 2020.

Boston was born in Cardiff in 1943 to an Irish mother and a father from Sierra Leone.

After initially playing rugby union growing up, he made the move to Wigan as a teenager.

In 15 seasons at Central Park, the winger scored 478 tries and became a club legend.

His achievements have previously been recognised with statues at Wembley and in Wigan town centre.