{"id":171190,"date":"2025-06-09T20:51:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T20:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/171190\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T20:51:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T20:51:13","slug":"wigan-legend-billy-boston-will-become-rugby-leagues-first-knight-and-not-before-time-writes-oliver-holt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/171190\/","title":{"rendered":"Wigan legend Billy Boston will become rugby league’s first knight. And not before time, writes OLIVER HOLT"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billy Boston walks into the lobby of a hotel near Hyde Park<\/a> Corner, wearing a smart blue jacket and the broad smile that harvested more than a million views when television cameras picked him out in the crowd at Wigan Warriors\u2019 Super League match with St Helens six weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Fans packed into the Brick Community Stadium that day rose to acclaim the man who is a legend in the town and in the sport for what he achieved in the game \u2014 he scored 478 tries in 487 matches for Wigan \u2014 and the humble, dignified way in which he achieved it.<\/p>\n

The man who walks into the London hotel with his wife, Joan, and his three surviving children is 90 years old, but still carries himself like a king of old.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He may be growing a little unfirm, but there is something regal about him that he will never lose.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It seems fitting then that today, a stone\u2019s throw from this hotel at Buckingham Palace<\/a>, Boston will be knighted by King Charles<\/a> and smash a barrier that has blighted rugby league for the 130 years it has existed.<\/p>\n

In all those years, not a single player of the sport has been deemed worthy of being made a knight of the realm.<\/p>\n

By comparison, rugby union has 20 knighthoods, yachting has 12, motor racing has eight, horse racing has eight and sheep shearing has one.<\/p>\n

\"Billy <\/p>\n

Billy Boston, pictured in 1963, will be the first rugby league player to be knighted<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The prolific try scorer was a superstar at Wigan and was Great Britain’s first black player<\/p>\n

Rugby league was on zero until now, until Billy Boston changed it all. He already has three statues in his honour \u2014 in Cardiff, where he was born, at Wembley, where he played in six Challenge Cup finals, and in Wigan \u2014 and now there is this. It feels like his last gift to a sport to which he has given so much.<\/p>\n

He was accompanied to London by Warriors owner Mike Danson and another club legend in Kris Radlinski, who is now Wigan\u2019s chief executive, both of whom are keenly aware of the wider significance of what will unfold at the Palace.<\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019ve just never had that breakthrough moment before,\u2019 Radlinski says. \u2018It\u2019s funny really because we\u2019re always looking at ways to take the game forward and we need superstars.<\/p>\n

\u2018One of the problems is we promote humility and create these humble guys, but we actually need them to be superstars.<\/p>\n

\u2018One thing about rugby league in our town and many northern teams is everybody lives in the town and access is unbelievable. So it\u2019s your biggest strength, but also your biggest weakness.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lack of recognition for rugby league\u2019s heroes is tied up in wider issues. Danson points out that only a small percentage of knighthoods are earned by people from the north. If you are northern and working class, that percentage shrinks even more. Boston has smashed through that barrier, as well.<\/p>\n

And so he sits in the lobby of this smart hotel, jokes with Radlinski and talks about the life he led when he was growing up in the Tiger Bay area of Cardiff in the 1940s. In his street, there was a chip shop on one corner and a mission on the other. Joe Erskine, who would go on to fight Henry Cooper five times and become Commonwealth heavyweight champion, was a neighbour.<\/p>\n

\u2018He could give me a good hiding,\u2019 Billy says. Once he started playing for Cardiff in rugby union, though, it was usually him dishing out the punishment. His progress was blocked by claims of racism and so Boston moved north to Wigan, his home ever since.<\/p>\n

He laughs as he reminisces about being paid a \u00a37 appearance fee for playing in the Challenge Cup final, but what he achieved in the sport has made him immeasurably rich in other ways, treasured by every fan of rugby league and now to be remembered as the man who broke its last barrier.<\/p>\n

If there is any sadness about his big day with the King, it is that his daughters, Lisa and Angela, who have passed away, will not be there to share it with him and Joan and his children Stephen, Christine and Karen. This moment has been a long time coming.<\/p>\n

\u2018You\u2019re a gentleman,\u2019 Billy says as I leave him and his family to their dinner. The honour, of course, was all mine.<\/p>\n

\"Boston <\/p>\n

Boston played in six Challenge Cup finals during his remarkable playing career<\/p>\n

\"Boston <\/p>\n

Boston spent his life breaking down barriers and his knighthood is another one<\/p>\n

Player welfare hypocrisy incoming\u00a0<\/p>\n

Next season, when it happens \u2014 and it will happen \u2014 and a manager at one of the football clubs that has flogged its players around the world on post-season and pre-season tours, or played them in the glorified friendly tournament that is the Club World Cup, moans about player welfare, I request permission to laugh out loud.\u00a0<\/p>\n

England are reversing\u00a0<\/p>\n

I know that this particular battle ended a long time ago, but the truth is that England have gone backwards since Gareth Southgate left. Southgate over-achieved with England for so long that it camouflaged just how ordinary some of our players really are. Once freed from his yoke, the argument went, England would be free to enter a new era of expression and entertainment. I\u2019m still waiting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sinner’s sins quickly forgotten\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sorry, but I can\u2019t join in the orgy of celebration about how Sunday\u2019s French Open men\u2019s singles final was a match for the ages.<\/p>\n

Sure, I can appreciate that, in other circumstances, it would have been a wonderful contest.<\/p>\n

And I am delighted it was won by Carlos Alcaraz, a magnificent player who is worthy to carry the torch left by Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal, Andy Murray and the fading Novak Djokovic.<\/p>\n

But the reality is that Jannik Sinner, the second of the men\u2019s finalists, should not have been playing at Roland Garros. After twice testing positive for banned anabolic steroid clostebol last year, he was finally sanctioned in February and let off with a paltry three-month ban that conveniently ensured he did not miss a single Grand Slam.<\/p>\n

\"Yannik <\/p>\n

Yannik Sinner\u00a0twice tested positive for banned anabolic steroid clostebol last year<\/p>\n

It astonishes me, frankly, how quickly many people seem to have forgotten that and glossed it over.<\/p>\n

I presume you have read Sinner\u2019s convoluted excuse about how the drug found its way into his system via a cut on the hand of his masseur. It\u2019s not quite up there with Tyson Fury testing positive for nandrolone and blaming it on eating wild boar testicles, but let\u2019s just say it stretches credibility.<\/p>\n

\u2018If I did that,\u2019 Serena Williams said as the ban was announced, \u2018I would have gotten 20 years. Let\u2019s be honest. I would have gotten Grand Slams taken away from me.\u2019 And she was right.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The truth is Sinner should have been banned for two years. But he is one of the biggest draws in a sport trying to come to terms with the loss of its greatest generation, so he wasn\u2019t. It\u2019s as cynical and dispiriting as that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billy Boston walks into the lobby of a hotel near Hyde Park Corner, wearing a smart blue jacket…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[92,257,4151,71281,93,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-171190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-london","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-rugbyleague","12":"tag-sport","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114655388295569052","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}