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Statue of Billy Boston, Clive Sullivan and Gus Risman

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Statue in Cardiff Bay

A statue of the Welsh rugby league players Billy Boston, Clive Sullivan and Gus Risman was unveiled in July 2023 in the Cardiff Bay area of the Butetown district of Cardiff. The ceremony, in Landsea Square, took place in the presence of 88-year-old Boston and relatives of Sullivan and Risman.

It was the first statue in Wales to depict named, non-fictionalised black men, although Boston is also represented by statues in Wembley and Wigan.

Background

Boston, Sullivan and Risman had left Wales in the 1950s to join the professional rugby league after being ostracised by the amateur rugby union - it was another 30 years before a black man was picked to play rugby for Wales.

The project behind the statue, One Team. One Race: Honouring the Cardiff Bay Rugby Codebreakers, was set up in 2020 after calls from the Butetown community. Boston, Sullivan and Risman were chosen as representatives of the 13 local rugby players who had switched code to play rugby in northern England.

Codebreakers Statue Cardiff Bay

Thirteen Welsh rugby ‘codebreakers’ were recognised by the statue in Cardiff Bay, as all thirteen nominees grew up within a three-mile radius of the spot. While Billy Boston, Gus Risman and Clive Sullivan are depicted on the statue, Frank Whitcombe, Jim Sullivan, Roy Francis, Colin Dixon, Dennis Brown, Gerald Cordle, Joe Corsi, Johnny Freeman, Dave Willicombe and William 'Wax' Williams all have named plaques on the monument.

The BBC's Matt Lloyd noted, "It has taken more than half a century for Wales to celebrate what the rest of the world recognised a lifetime ago".

References

  1. ^ Lloyd, Matt (19 July 2023). "Rugby trailblazers Billy Boston, Clive Sullivan and Gus Risman 'finally recognised' in Wales". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on 20 July 2023. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
  2. ^ Johnson, Taite (19 July 2023). "Giant statue of three Welsh rugby heroes unveiled in Cardiff". Wales Online. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
  3. ^ Blanche, Phil (19 July 2023). "Three Welsh rugby 'codebreakers' immortalised by statue in Cardiff Bay". The Independent. London. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
  4. "'It's long overdue' - rugby pioneers get statue". BBC Sport. Retrieved 2023-08-06.

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