Billy Boston

Billy Boston

Boston in 1954
Personal information
Full name	William John Boston
Born	(1934-08-06) 6 August 1934 (age 82) Butetown, Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales, UK
Playing information
Rugby union
Club Years Team Pld T G FG P 1952 Pontypridd 1
Rugby league
Position	Wing, Centre
Club Years Team Pld T G FG P 1953–68 Wigan 488 478 7 0 1448 1969–70 Blackpool Borough 11 5 0 0 15 Total 499 483 7 0 1463 Representative Years Team Pld T G FG P 1954–62 Great Britain 31 24 0 0 72 1955 Welsh XIII 1 0 0 0 3 1955 Other Nationalities 2 5 0 0 15 1956 English XIII 1 1 0 0 3
Source: eraofthebiff.com RLP

William John "Billy" Boston MBE (born 6 August 1934) is a retired rugby league footballer who played as a winger or centre. 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 awarded an MBE in 1986.

He was born on 6 August 1934 in Butetown, Cardiff and played rugby union for the CIAC's RFC, Pontypridd RFC and Neath RFC.

Wigan were alerted to him when he was serving with the Royal Signals at Catterick and when he made his 'A' team début a crowd of 8,000 assembled inside Central Park, Wigan. He made his first team début against Barrow in November 1953 scoring a try.