Jimmy Peters: race pioneer of English rugby who emerged from the circus

Until 1988 Peters, whose father died in a lion’s cage, was the only black man to play rugby union for England. The sport’s historians are now starting to piece together his storyA century later the truth of exactly what happened to Jimmy Peters is just out of reach. One can find little scraps of it, titbits, facts and hints. In the last few years different writers, historians and academics have tried to stitch it all together but the story is thin and full of holes no one thought to fill in until it was too late. We know Peters was good, as any man who plays for England must be, and we can gue…