Welsh rugby legends will be honoured with statue
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PLANS to erect a statue of three Welsh rugby legends in Cardiff Bay have been approved. Billy Boston, Clive Sullivan, and Gus Risman will be depicted in a new monument celebrating the city’s so-called rugby “codebreakers”.
The statue, which will be erected in Landsea Square in Mermaid Quay, honours three rugby players from the Butetown and old Tiger Bay area.
The trio were among the first leading players to move from Welsh amateur rugby union careers to England’s professional rugby league teams in the north.
The One Team – One Race, Honouring the Cardiff Bay Rugby Codebreakers project launched in 2020 and raised money to create a statue chosen from 13 sports stars who made a contribution playing rugby over the past 120 years.
All of the 13 nominees grew up within a three-mile radius of Cardiff Bay.
Following a public vote of more than 14,000 participants the three players were selected to be represented in the statue. Boston, born in Butetown, was made an MBE for his services to sport.
He won the World Cup with Great Britain and played 31 times for the Lions. This won’t be the first time he has been depicted in a sculpture as he has a statue dedicated to him in Wigan, as well as being included on the rugby league statue at Wembley Stadium.
Born in Splott, Sullivan was the first black person to captain a British professional sports side. He led Great Britain to the Rugby League World Cup in 1972, scoring a try in each of his side’s four games in the tournament. In 1975 he went on to captain Wales at the World Cup.
Risman, the son of Russian immigrants who settled in Tiger Bay, is a member of the Rugby League and Workington Halls of Fame and is on the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame Roll of Honour. He commenced his rugby league career in 1929 and, between then and 1954, scored 4,052 points in 873 games for Salford and Workington Town. He also appears on the Rugby League statue at Wembley Stadium.
Sculptor Steve Winterburn, who has already immortalised Billy Boston in his Wigan statue, has been commissioned by the fundraising committee to create the sculpture. Mr Winterburn, who has more than 30 years of experience, also created the Rugby League statue at Wembley stadium.