Former Springbok Pedrie Wannenburg tells the Irish Independent's Peter Bills that helping Ulster return to Europe's top table his prime motivation.
"They're an easy target at which to direct your fire, ideal victims of the cheap shot. What on earth are all these South African rugby players doing over here in Ireland, the UK and France? Working hard on their personal pension funds, of course, say the cynics.
"Aren't they creaming it financially, the whole lot of them? Aren't too many playing rubbish rugby? But do they care? Isn't all that matters the dough?
"Well, those are some of the common perceptions in a few people's minds. But Pedrie Wannenburg wishes to offer a case for the defence.
"Ulster's 30-year-old former Blue Bulls and Springboks back-row man puts a very different perspective on the whole overseas slant. He certainly offers a stirring defence of his own motives for playing northern hemisphere rugby.
"Wannenburg, the first player to play 100 Super 14 matches for the Bulls, says flatly: "If you want money, if that is your only interest, you don't come to this part of the world. You go to Japan and don't worry about your rugby career any more."
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