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3rd March 2017
04:23pm GMT

Parkinson looked to Italy's 'no ruck' innovations that perplexed England for 40 minutes of their Six Nations clash and noted how World Rugby will undoubtedly introduce a rule tweak to eradicate that negative tactic. He said:
"You've got a governing body [in rugby] that will say, 'Right, that's not that exciting'... [In GAA, if they were in charge] they might say, 'Right three forwards, three backs you have to stay up there'." Parkinson continued, "I can't ever see Gaelic games devolving back into, 'Right, I'm not going to pack my defence' because that's just the [pervading] conservative nature of protecting your goal."Parkinson is in favour of governing bodies acting in the best interest of their sporting product. McDonnell agrees and allowed himself to drift into dream territory:
"Wouldn't you love a rule change - a trial period for just one year - one year, man-on-man, 15-against-15. "That would certainly show who is capable of playing inter-county football and who isn't. And you must kick the ball, you're only allowed one hand pass in a row... it'd be fascinating. You'd certainly see which teams have been focusing on their ball skills in the last few years and which ones haven't."Parkinson is up for it but the likelihood of a man-on-man format returning is minuscule. It would require a heap of GAA people to agree and more than one rule change to implement. Wishful thinking but, for now, we have to live with what we got. https://soundcloud.com/sportsjoe-gaa-hour/downs-mark-poland-on-fake-news-mayo-to-win-and-thrifty-tyrone
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