Sonny Bill Williams has explained why he made his hugely controversial switch to French rugby union side Toulon.

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To put it bluntly, he has a lot of reasons - and they all have dollar signs in front of them.

"If a bus driver is on $40,000 and gets offered a lot more to go somewhere else, what do you think they're going to do?" he said.

"Are they going to change bus companies? Or are they going to sit there and say, 'all these people want me to stay here because I'm the best bus driver around'. It's just common sense."

I remember being part of a scrum of journalists trying to get their microphones under Williams' nose at the Galpharm Stadium after he produced a brilliant display in the Kiwis' defeat by Great Britain in the 2004 Tri-Nations.

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At just 19, the excited chat was that here was a player who could become one of the all-time greats: size, strength, pace, awesome skill, tackles that left opponents in heaps on the floor - Williams had it all.

A softer-spoken, more humble sportsman would have been difficult to meet at the time. He genuinely didn't seem to know what all the fuss was about.

But a few years in the unremitting spotlight of the NRL and Williams seems to be a bit more forthright in his opinions.

"Hopefully some good can come out of what I've done and it wakes everybody up and they realise that something needs to be done," he said after walking out on his Bulldogs deal just one year into a five-year contract.

"What I've done, it's shown it's just not about me, it's about the boys getting a fair go, you know what I mean?

"It's about them having the balls to stand up for themselves and get what they should be getting."

Williams, still just 23, is facing legal action from both the Bulldogs and the NRL, and is not likely to win any popularity contests in Sydney for the foreseeable future.

But what do you make of his reasoning? Do you buy his theory that NRL players are underpaid for what they do?

Wouldn't we all jump ships at the drop of the hat if someone offered us much more money?

What does all this mean for the NRL? Is this, combined with the departure of Mark Gasnier to French rugby union as well, the start of an exodus? What can Australian rugby league do about it?

And from a purely playing point of view, how do you think SBW will get on in union?