The format was designed to guarantee fixtures between the top nations. It has also guaranteed travel.
The Pro League’s selling point was competitive certainty: every top nation playing every other, home and away, on a predictable calendar. What it did not solve is geography. A European side can face an away trip of eleven time zones and be back in competition six days later, and the recovery science has not caught up.
Rotation as a luxury
The effect on selection is visible. The larger federations rotate heavily and treat away legs as development opportunities, which is sensible for them and diluting for the competition. The smaller federations, with fewer players of international standard, cannot rotate — and their results suffer disproportionately on the long legs.
A balance problem, not a format problem
Nobody is proposing to abandon the format, because the guaranteed fixtures have genuinely raised the sport’s profile. But the scheduling question is becoming a competitive-balance question, and the governing body will have to answer it before the next cycle.
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