Rowlands served refereeing in Wales for more than 50 years, after initially taking up the whistle after being told he wasn’t good enough to play for Ynysbwl. After spending two years refereeing at Youth and Welsh District he joined the WRU List in 1964.
In total, he spent 28 years as a referee before becoming the first Referees Development Officer at the WRU in 1990. He went on to become Director of Referees, spending a decade in those two roles at the union.
On the field he became a member of the WRU international panel in 1979 and went on to referee in 25 different countries. He took charge of four international fixtures – South Africa v South America (1980), France v Scotland (1981), Scotland v England (1982) and South Africa v NZ Cavaliers (1986) – and was in the middle for the 1979 Schweppes Cup final between Bridgend and Pontypridd.
He took charge of games involving the All Blacks on two tours and the Wallabies on three, as well as controlling games involving the touring teams from Fiji, Tonga and Japan. He was also the first exchange referee in a game in Moscow in 1980, when Russian entertained France.
