Billy Boston

William John Boston, MBE (born 6 August 1934) is a Welsh former professional rugby league footballer who played as a or . Born in Cardiff, Wales, Boston started his career as a rugby union player before joining Wigan in 1953. He spent the next 15 years at Wigan, where he scored a club-record 478 tries in his 488 appearances for the club. He finished his career at Blackpool Borough before retiring in 1970. He also represented Great Britain in 31 Test matches, and was part of the team that won the 1960 Rugby League World Cup. Regarded as one of the sport's greatest ever players, Boston scored a total of 571 tries in his career, making him the second-highest try scorer in rugby league history. He is an original inductee of the British Rugby League Hall of Fame, Welsh Sports Hall of Fame and Wigan Warriors Hall of Fame, and was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1996 Birthday Honours "for services to the community in Wigan, Greater Manchester." Early life Born on 6 August 1934 at Angelina Street, Butetown, Cardiff, Boston was the sixth of eleven children born to John Boston (a merchant seaman from Sierra Leone) and Nellie who came from Cardiff's Irish community. Rugby Union Boston began his rugby union career with the newly formed Cardiff Internationals Athletic Club. CIACS (pronounced "kayaks") represented Grangetown, Cardiff Bay, Butetown and the Docks areas of the city, and the team's makeup reflected the multinational nature of those communities. Boston also represented the Cardiff Schoolboys team in the late 1940s and went on to represent Wales in both the boys clubs' internationals and at Youth level. The young Boston was an integral part of the CIACs "invincible" season of 1951–52, where the team won all of their 32 games. Boston was already attracting attention and was given opportunities at two famous Welsh clubs, representing Neath RFC in 1950 and Pontypridd RFC in 1952. However, Boston repeatedly stated his wishes to represent Cardiff RFC, telling one journalist that he cried after signing for Wigan as he knew his dreams of playing rugby union for Cardiff and Wales were over.