Ulster centre Will Addison has been a revelation for the northern province this season.
The 26-year-old moved to Belfast from the Sale Sharks during the summer and has made an immediate impact for his new club with another man of the match performance against the Scarlets during Ulster’s 25-24 win on Friday night.
Addison was sensational, scoring a try and setting up another for winger Jacob Stockdale who is already one of the best finishers in world rugby.
Addison has good hands and great timing but it’s really his footwork that often gets him out of tricky situations and into others where he can create for either himself or for his teammates.
Here we can see Ulster go wide to Addison on a block play while Scarlets flankers Will Boyde and James Davies rush out of the line for what should have been a tackle behind the gainline.
Addison recognises the rush and does an excellent job of turning what should be a loss of metres, and potentially possession, into a play where Ulster retain possession with a host of forwards in support to secure the ball.
It’s a great combination of intelligence and footwork and it’s this mixture that paid huge dividends for Ulster on Friday evening.
Earlier in the half we can again see him receive the ball on a block play before he steps outside of Jonathan Davies, explodes through the gap and puts Stockdale away for the score, and while Addison created the opportunity, the Ulster winger still had to do a tonne of work to finish off the chance.
From an attacking point of view, Addison has such a natural set of skills and at the outside centre position and he gives Ulster an added level of creativity here.
He has this innate ability to recognise where the defenders are coming from and where his teammates are going to be and how to get them the ball.
Again he does a great job here of getting on the outside of Jonathan Davies which holds winger Steff Evans just long enough that it allows Billy Burns just enough time to get on the outside of him and take off down the field.
Addison has done such an excellent job at this in both the loose and from the set-piece but after the game it was his defence that he highlighted as an area that he needed to improve.
“A few hairy moments near the end, I don’t think JP [Jared Payne, Ulster defence coach] is going to be too happy with me,” Addison told BT Sport after the match.
“I’ve got some things to work on but I think we just showed the heart that we’ve got here which is resisting right until the end.”
Finishing the tackle is probably the big work on for Addison but even at that he still shows great speed and footwork to close the gap with the attacker and put himself in a good position where he can make a play.
Below he does a great job of adapting to the ball carrier after he decides to hold the pass and then realigns again before shooting out on Steff Evans, albeit unsuccessfully.
He also falls off Johnny McNicholl in the build up to Dan Davis’ 79th minute try but the delayed pass gives McNicholl just enough time to get on the outside and he does a brilliant job of fending him off and getting the ball wide to Davies who puts Davis away.
Addison could have done better here but his linespeed and aggression in defence are big attributes for Ulster.
Only moments earlier he shot out of the line to obliterate Dan Jones who just got his pass to Davies away.
Addison admits he’s got parts of his game to work on, which much be thrilling for Jared Payne and Ulster head coach Dan McFarland, because he’s already got such a strong base levels of skills to work with.
With a back three often consisting of the likes of Stockdale, Louis Ludik, Henry Speight and Craig Gilroy, Addison’s presence is keenly felt and often creates opportunities for the aforementioned to finish, and on the basis of Stockdale’s try, they often don’t need an awful lot to work with to make plays and score tries.
Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt deployed Addison as both a full-back and a centre during the November internationals. He clearly has the ball skills and footwork to excel as a full-back, and his versatility will provide much needed value when it comes to announcing Ireland’s Rugby World Cup squad next year, but for the moment he’s the perfect option for Ulster at outside centre and one of the best signings of the season by an Irish province.
