Wigan Warriors: Martin Offiah's fitting tribute to 'absolute legend' Sir Billy Boston following knighthood

Boston was knighted by the King in a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, with his family by his side as he ended rugby league’s 130-year wait for a knighthood.

Sir Billy, who was born in Wales but became an adopted Wiganer, became one of the greatest rugby league players off all-time after making the move from Cardiff up north to cross codes in 1953. The now 90-year-old holds an incredible try-scoring record for Wigan that may never be beaten, having scored a staggering 478 tries in 488 appearances for the Cherry and Whites.

Paying tribute to Boston, Offiah told Wigan Today: “The term legend gets flung around by people when they just refer to someone who used to play, but if you had to write all of his achievements down, the Hall of Fames, the number of tries he scored, and the memories that people have of him, he is just an absolute legend.

“He led out Wigan last year at Wembley at 90 years old. Whenever I see him and I have a joke with him, he will enter a room and I’ll go ‘Billy, it’s not often I’m in a room with someone who has scored more tries than me’ and I’ll often get a chuckle out of him. It wouldn’t have done it justice if they had chosen anyone else apart from Billy. He was the ideal candidate.

“I was having a chat with Ian McGeechan and Gareth Edwards just last week at a Lions preview dinner, and I was thinking then, I often meet the likes of Clive Woodward and many people in union circles, but there is no one in rugby league that had a knighthood.

“We’ve often said it is long overdue, I don’t know what the workings are or how we’ve got it, but I think we could’ve been doing more to push the likes of people like Billy and Alex Murphy. We know it should’ve happened before, why it didn’t happen, I don’t know, people say is it a class thing, I don’t know, obviously there are more people in the south than the north who have got honours, but rather than talk about it being long overdue, I just want to celebrate Billy and what he’s achieved.

“I just think it’s also more than the rugby picture with Billy. I’ve seen it, I’ve been in his presence, the love that people have for him as an individual, as well as him being a great rugby player.

“People have lots of memories about him, but they also talk about him as a person. I’ve spent a fair bit of time with Billy over the years and obviously we’re both on the Wembley statue, but I also say he’s got more statues than me as well as tries! And that is very humbling, and I would love to live as long as him, so Billy keeps me fit and healthy.”

Offiah, who is immortalised in a rugby league statue outside Wembley alongside Boston, Gus Risman, Eric Ashton and Murphy, hopes that Sir Billy’s knighthood is the first of many in rugby league.

The Great Britain icon has highlighted the late, great Roy Francis as a potential candidate. The Cardiff-born player turned supercoach, who died aged 70 in 1989, broke down barriers in sport, becoming the first black player to represent Great Britain in either rugby code.

Francis headed north to Wigan at the age of just 17, and went on to become an iconic coach at Hull FC, Leeds, North Sydney Bears and Bradford Northern.

“Another name that springs to mind is a guy called Roy Francis because I liken myself to the likes of Roy and Billy, who came from rugby union as unheralded talents,” Offiah added.

“There are many people who cross codes who are already internationals, but the likes of Roy Francis, Billy and I didn’t come to league as heralded compared to the likes of Jonathan Davies and the like. We just came as youngsters and made our name in the game, and that’s what Billy did, and arguably, Billy is the greatest of them all to do what he did with Wigan.

“Tony Collins, the rugby league historian, has recently written a book about the life of Roy Francis, and I was fortunate enough to write the foreword for that book. I just wish that a lot of these types of stories get told and that the modern generations will understand and know about Billy Boston and Roy Francis.

“Obviously, everyone in Wigan knows about Billy Boston, but I think we should take the name of Billy Boston to the wider generations because I think stories like his and careers like his should be remembered and revered.”