The giant lock has had no other option than to spend non-Test weeks and weeks when he wasn’t selected by Wales back with his former side Wasps under Gallagher Premiership rugby rules.
Rowlands has had to deal with that for the 18 months in which he has been a Wales player and the second row has often turned out for Wasps while his Welsh team-mates are resting. Now, after swapping Wasps for the Dragons this summer, the 29-year-old is looking at a new chapter.
“There was a point during the Six Nations this year when we’d played a lot of rugby in the Premiership,” Rowlands said. “We’d gone from the previous Premiership final with Wasps basically straight into the new season.
“I think there was a bit of cumulative fatigue there which maybe I didn’t recognise. I was doing my best to ignore it and pretend it wasn’t there, but it did show itself in my general energy around the training pitch.
“Coming to play club rugby in Wales was a decision I made to hopefully put myself in the best position to go to another level or at least deliver my best performances if selected for the national side. I do strongly believe that will be the case.
“I’m looking forward to doing my best to deliver on that.” Rowlands has 10 Wales caps to date, but the departure of his international locking rivals Cory Hill and Jake Ball for moves to Japan has opened up an opportunity.
The 29-year-old is set to rival Adam Beard as Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones’ second-row partner for a gruelling autumn campaign with New Zealand, South Africa, Fiji and Australia. In a funny twist of fate, Rowlands will make his Dragons debut against his old side Wasps in Sunday’s pre-season friendly in Coventry.
“I’m excited about it. It’s a bit of a weird one for my first game for a new club to be against my old one. It will be weird going to the away changing room, but it should be good fun,” he said.
“The constant back and forth from Wales to Coventry was pretty tough and it does take it out of you. The hardest part I found was mentally. You come into a Test environment where you’re playing for your country and you want to be 100 per cent committed to that.
“The next week you’re back at your club and you have to switch everything. That contributes to you being quite mentally exhausted, particularly when you have to do that multiple times.”
Wasps: Crossdale; Watson, Fekitoa, Le Bourgeois, Bassett; Umaga, Robson; Hislop, Cruse, Toomaga-Allen, Fifita, Stooke, Shields (capt), Young, Willis
Replacements: Frost, Harris, Alo, Cardall, Morris, Wolstenholme, Gopperth, Kibirige, Millar-Mills, Pichardie, Curran, Porter, Miller, Simonds, Spink, Minozzi, Mehson
Dragons: I Davies; Holmes, Dixon, Owen, Olowofela; S Davies (capt), Babos; Seiuli, Shipp, Doge, Carter, Rowlands, Wainwright, Basham, Moriarty
Replacements: Benjamin, Reynolds, Coleman, Maksymiw, Taylor, Griffiths, Fry, Jones, Lewis, Warren, Lloyd, Williams
Kick-off: 2pm
