The giant lock has joined Racing 92 for the upcoming season from Dragons, but wants to achieve far more on French soil before he joins up with his new teammates.
The former Oxford University blue has already helped Wales to complete a second successive clean sweep of their Pool and is now gearing up to take on Argentina in Marseille on Saturday in the first quarter final.
“We’re just playing to our strengths, and the results have been spot on so far. Our performances can get better, but we are just excited now to kick on and get into the real meat of the competition this weekend,” said Rowlands.
“We were confident that if we played to the right game-plan, got the right players going in the right direction, that we could beat other teams. We’ve proved that.
“It feels really exciting, and we want to keep going in the tournament. For us, it was the minimum standard to get to this stage.
“That Fiji game was tough. They played really well and put us under a lot of pressure, but we got the result and we have played better and better ever since.”
Despite only returning as head coach in January, Waren Gatland has led Wales to a fourth successive quarter final at the World Cup and is now targeting a third semi-final slot. Having picked up 19 out of a possible 20 points in the pool stages with wins over Fiji, Portugal, Australia and Georgia, Wales will go into their third World Cup clash with the Pumas as slight favourites.
Michael Cheika’s Argentinean side lost to England in their opening game and finished second in their pool. It will be the first time the two teams have met at the tournament since 1999, when they clashed in the opening game of the World Cup hosted by Wales.
“There has been a lot of confidence in the squad about what we want to do. We’ve had a clear message from the coaches, we train well during the week and try to deliver on the weekend,” added Rowlands.
