Ronan O'Gara has shared his condemnation of Billy Vunipola's post-match comments after the Saracens man's involvement in Saturday's Champions Cup defeat of Munster.
Speaking on Tuesday's OTB AM, O'Gara admitted that he was loathe to afford the situation "any oxygen," but nevertheless shared his condemnation of Vunipola's behaviour, and questioned the response of those in charge of English rugby.
"His words are contradictory," O'Gara noted, "he says he didn't want to hurt anyone, yet, he liked something that grossly offends so many people."
"You've got to separate obviously his performance on the pitch which was really good, but I don't think he should be given a stage to proclaim how great he is and what he believes in for himself."
Instrumental in Saracens' convincing defeat of Munster, the England international came under scrutiny for his support of Israel Folau in light of homophobic comments promoted by the Australian on his social media platforms.
Named man-of-the-match on Saturday, Vunipola was notably unrepentant in his post-match comments with BT Sport.
Although the former Ireland and Munster star O'Gara isn't overly interested in giving Vunipola's beliefs further scope, he did suggest that Vunipola was fortunate to be playing at all.
"He was very lucky in the fact that he should have been banned for the game," O'Gara stated.
"The rugby family encompasses every different possible belief, and out of respect for your teammates and people, you keep those views private.
"[England's RFU] are picking what suits them, deciding the outcome in relation to the spoken candidate is, it's not consistent one bit.
"If it was Chris Ashton or someone like that, there might have been a different punishment.
"This was all [Vunipola's doing] ... he decided to like [Folau's post]. I'm a big fan of people with strong beliefs, but I think it's very important, one of the most important values you learn in rugby is respect, and I don't think that is respectful."
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