THERE will never be another Billy Boston!

I can say that without fear of contradiction.

Many people have commented about Sir Billy’s life since his death was announced last week.

And I haven’t read a single word about him that was even faintly negative, even from the supporters of teams other than Wigan who Billy used to terrorise in his playing career.

Everyone loved and respected him.

And the tribute paid to him by Wigan, with the help of Sky Sports, prior to last Thursday’s game against Hull KR, was totally fitting and extremely well done.

Wigan and Sky deserve our congratulations and our admiration for revealing the true depth of Billy’s ability and his humanity.

Is there any other player who has three statues to his name?

Billy features in statues in Wigan, Wembley and Cardiff. What a round trip that would be if you spent a day on the road to see them up close.

In last week’s League Express Podcast Jake Kearnan and I paid tribute to Sir Billy shortly after the news of his death came out.

I had my own story to tell of Sir Billy’s kindness going back many years to when I was a young Wakefield supporter.

The Podcast is, of course, still available to watch or listen to.

Under the radar

Sir Billy Boston was a prolific try-scoring winger when he played for Wigan.

And another prolific try scorer for the club is their current number 5 Liam Marshall, who has now scored 202 career tries after touching down three times against Hull KR last Thursday night, with some of his tries demonstrating great acrobatic skill.

I’ve always found it slightly puzzling that Liam has hardly ever been mentioned as a potential England winger at any point in his career, other than when he won one cap in 2024 when he played for England in the second Test against Samoa, scoring a try but seemingly falling out of favour after that.

Wigan had eight players named in Brian McDermott’s provisional England squad, but Liam wasn’t one of them.

Now that he has turned 30 I would guess that there wouldn’t be too many more international opportunities for him.

Nonetheless, he never fails to deliver a strong performance for his club and I’m sure Sir Billy would have approved of him.

Retirement of three icons

Tom Briscoe is another remarkably good winger who, at the age of 36, has announced his impending retirement.

He was our player of the match in his final game at Hull’s MKM Stadium on Saturday and he looks good enough to carry on for a few more years yet. But it’s not to be.

Tom is another player who has been ignored by the international selector for a long time.

He actually did play 15 games for England, starting in 2009 when he was only 19 years old, and ending in 2013.

He scored eleven tries for England during that time, but his last game was against Fiji in the 2013 World Cup. Since then he hasn’t had a sniff.

Two other notable retirees are Jonny Lomax, who has been a truly great player in my opinion, but whose career has been savagely blighted by injury, as he explained to Sky Sports on Friday night.

Like Tom, he also played 15 matches internationally, both for England and Great Britain.

The third player to note is Paul Sykes, who has finally decided to quit at the age of 45 and who received a guard of honour from his Dewsbury teammates on Saturday afternoon.

Paul is the last player still active in the game who made his debut in the last century.

In his case, he debuted for Bradford Bulls on the bench at Wakefield on 2nd July 1999, when the Bulls defeated Trinity 36-8.

That was a team that included Jamie Peacock, James Lowes, Henry Paul and Brian McDermott, among many other great names.

My best wishes to all three of those three great players, and to all the other players for whom this is their last season.

I wish them all the very best for a happy retirement.

South Sydney’s touching gesture

Another player who is officially retiring from the game this year is Jai Arrow, the South Sydney player.

Unfortunately Jai is not retiring in happy circumstances, having been diagnosed with motor neurone disease earlier this year.

We all saw how devastating that diagnosis is with Rob Burrow, so I can only extend my sympathy to Jai and his family with the hope that a cure can be found for the disease before it is too late for him.

Nonetheless it is worth commenting on the gesture made by the South Sydney club.

Jai had played 98 games for them when he made public the details of his illness.

But now the Rabbitohs have obtained a special dispensation to allow him to take the field at the start of the final two games of the regular season to get that total up to 100 games.

On Saturday he walked out with the team at the Gold Coast Titans, to highly emotional scenes.

He will do it again on Friday, when the Rabbitohs host the Roosters at Allianz Stadium.

I’m sure there will be a full house to welcome him onto the field.

The game will feature on Sky this Friday at 11.00am.

It will certainly be worth watching.