Wales have put last year's shock loss to Georgia behind them
Only four players from the side that were beaten in the dying days of former coach Wayne Pivac's reign will start against Georgia in Nantes on Saturday, and Rowlands believes that, almost 12 months on, they are in a much better place.
He did not feature in the 13-12 defeat, and says no-one in the squad who will be thinking about that result this weekend.
"I don't want to reflect too much on the past but there have been some up and downs in the last few years," he said on Friday. "But everyone in this team were confident that we are a better team than we've shown.
"We wanted to come this World Cup and keep getting better and deliver performances that we can be proud of and the Welsh public can be proud of.
"We are gradually getting towards that and tomorrow hopefully is another step forward."
A rejuvenated Wales under coach Warren Gatland have secured their knockout place, but missed out in 2007 when they lost a final pool game 38-34 to Fiji at the same Stade de la Beaujoire venue in Nantes.
"It's a fresh group. First time we're in Nantes. I don't think there's any thoughts about the past, particularly what happened 16 years ago," Rowlands said.
Fullback Liam Williams believes keeping up their momentum going into the quarter-finals, most likely against either Argentina or Japan, is the most important thing on Saturday, where a point will secure them top spot in the pool.
"We are three out of three. We have been a tough team to beat and hopefully we'll do that again tomorrow," Williams said.
"It won't be an easy win. They (Georgia) have been a tough team during this campaign and we'll be expecting another (difficult) game."