Criticised for ‘chopping and changing’ his positions at Sale, Will Addison’s Ireland caps have come at wing, outside centre and fullback.
Will Addison must have struggled to keep himself grounded when, months before his Ulster debut, Joe Schmidt called him in to train with Ireland before they flew out to Australia.
He did not travel Down Under but spent the next few months familiarising himself with Ulster plays, as well as some he picked up from his week inside the green curtain. He made his Ulster debut on September 1, against Scarlets, and looked the real deal from minute one.
The Penrith native picked up his first Ireland cap at Soldier Field, last month, and then lined out against Argentina and the USA in Dublin. His latest tour-de-force in Ulster white arrived against Scarlets in the Champions Cup and had The Telegraph declaring ‘England’s loss is Ireland’s gain’.
That opinion is shared by a slew of English fans. Many of them followed Addison closely at Sale Sharks but some are only sitting up to take notice after his deeds with Ulster and Ireland. The RFU’s ‘Southern bias’ coming back to bite them, some say.
Former England and Lions star Ugo Monye once shared a pitch with Addison and knows him to be a classy operator. However, he is not having it that Addison’s departure from Sale, and England, was a glaring error. On the BBC’s Rugby Union Weekly, Monye and co-host Chris Jones spoke about Addison:
MONYE: “What I won’t have is, ‘Oh, how have England rugby let this guy get away?’ Because there was not a pundit, there was no-one writing Will Addison for England… I’m just not having it.
JONES: “No-one is saying Will Addison is the one that got away from English rugby.”
MONYE: “But there had been conversations over the weekend – ‘How has he been allowed to go to Ulster. Within three months he’s got himself a cap; he’s playing for the second… well, according to Steve Hansen, the best team in the world.”
Monye believes Addison is doing better as he has been afforded the chance to work under someone like Joe Schmidt and settle on one position. Looking at his nine outings for province and country, though, the 26-year-old has played centre five times, fullback three times and covered the wing against Italy.
During the latest episode of Baz & Andrew’s House of Rugby [from 3:00 below], Barry Murphy and Andrew Trimble gushed about Addison’s feats so far this season. Trimble even admitted to being a tad star-struck when he came across the Ulster back at a recent event.
“I think Will Addison is benefiting from a lot of people not appreciating how good he is,” says Trimble on Ulster’s opening try at Parc Y Scarlets.
“(Scarlets centre) Jon Davies got caught by the pace Addison has. A nice little bounce pass from Billy Burns and he did the rest. Well, he didn’t do the rest. He hit Stockdale and Stockale did the rest. He had no right to score that try. It was class.”
Trimble recounted how BT Sport presenter Sarra Elgan-Easterby had told him how Addison, despite over 100 appearances and seven seasons at Sale, he was never talked of as a potential England international. “It’s crazy,” he said.
“It’s Andy Farrell, Stuart Lancaster and Will Addison [that England let go of], isn’t it? Yoink!”
Trimble spoke to Addison at a testimonial dinner for former Ulster and Ireland flanker Chris Henry and joked he was too embarrassed to as for a selfie. “I’d like to be friends with him, long-term,” he remarked.
WATCH THE FULL EPISODE HERE:
