rugby league

The former Wigan Warriors star earlier this week became the first rugby league player to be knighted in the sport's 130-year history.

Cardiff-born Sir Billy scored 478 tries in 488 matches for Wigan after making the switch from rugby union - then an amateur game - to the professional ranks of rugby league in 1953.

Sir Billy, who has family links to Ireland and Sierra Leone, was in 1954 the first black player on a Great Britain rugby league Lions tour.

Politicians and rugby league's biggest names campaigned for him to become the sport's first knight.

Rugby league legend Sir Billy Boston should have been knighted years ago when he could have still fully appreciated its significance, his son has said.