An extraordinary few minutes in the Millennium Stadium yesterday afternoon told us several things about the Wales coaching staff and the way they are treating Gavin Henson, the centre, who had been suffering from an Achilles' heel problem.

It began with Robert Howley, an assistant coach, insisting that Henson was fit to play against South Africa this afternoon, that he was central to the Wales attack and defence and that he could have played had the game been yesterday afternoon. This despite the presence of Henson in a tracksuit at pitchside, even as Howley was talking, taking no part in the team's light run-out.

No more than five minutes after saying this, Howley was forced into a retraction after he had been told by Warren Gatland, the Wales coach, that Henson had asked to be withdrawn from today's team.

“We wanted to give Gavin the best available opportunity to play,” a red-faced Howley said. “We decided to leave the decision to him. He is a mature person. He trained Tuesday and Thursday morning. We know what Gavin brings to a team in terms of his kicking and running game and we were happy that he had not trained on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. He took the decision to withdraw when he was standing on the touchline this afternoon. He said he did not feel mentally and physically ready to play.”

The lengths that Gatland and his fellow coaches went to for Henson bear out what Gatland had said earlier in the week about their treatment of their star centre. “As coaches we're trying to get him to have more confidence in his own ability,” he said. “We want him to realise he is a world-class player. Our role is to build him up.”

It is a matter of conjecture as to whether this weakens Wales in a match that pits the Six Nations champions against South Africa, the world champions. A fit Henson would have been an asset with his running and kicking but an unfit one, glum, low on confidence and unable to put in any of those long touch-finders or to kick at goal, might have been better being replaced by Tom Shanklin, as he duly was. Shanklin and Jamie Roberts had practised together all week.

Two former Wales internationals said separately yesterday that they feared the home side may be badly beaten. “Have we found a new style of play because other countries will have worked us out by now,” said one, adding: “I don't know how inventive Gatland is coming up with new tactics.”

This former international cited weaknesses at hooker, where he felt Matthew Rees was an unreliable thrower, in the second row, where Ian Evans sometimes struggled to control his temper, and at scrum half, where he thought Gareth Cooper was brittle. “We've got a new centre partnership, a new cap on the wing and more and more countries are abandoning the blitz defence because there is nothing behind it and returning to a drift defence.” Ever the gloomy Celt, he shook his head. “We could lose by 20 or 25 points.”

Yet after a poor Tri-Nations, South Africa are not without their problems. Peter de Villiers, the coach, is not considered universally to be the right man for the job or to be using the right tactics. He has an extraordinary way of speaking, too. His philosophy on life, as outlined in the Western Mail yesterday morning, is something like this: “What we try to tell them is when you point your finger into the sky, don't concentrate on the finger because you'll miss all the heavenly glory out there. Concentrate on the heavenly glory that you can bring and make yourselves so fulfilled.”

They also have a scrum half playing fly half in Ruan Pienaar, a hooker playing tight-head prop in John Smit and in Bakkies Botha and Schalk Burger men who are not at their best. Botha is recovering from a six-month spell out of the game because of injury while Burger did not play in the two victories over Wales in the summer, and Western Province, his club side, did not shine in the Currie Cup.

Yet they have real pace in players such as Pierre Spies, the No 8, who is said to have run the 100 metres in 10.6sec, and skill in Adrian Jacobs and Jean de Villiers in the centre and, of course, the very fast Bryan Habana on the left wing.

“After our success in 2005 we did not back it up,” Stephen Jones, the Wales fly half, said. “We do not want to be a flash in the pan again. We have got to be clever in a well-organised defence and make sure we use the ball well. Playing in the Millennium Stadium will be a help.”

The stadium roof will be closed so the predicted bad weather will not be a feature. Wales will relish the advantage of playing at home. Even so, victory would be unexpected and against the odds.

Wales: L Byrne (Ospreys); L Halfpenny (Cardiff Blues), J Roberts (Cardiff Blues), T Shanklin (Cardiff Blues), S Williams (Ospreys); S Jones (Scarlets), G Cooper (Gloucester); G Jenkins (Cardiff Blues), M Rees (Scarlets), A Jones (Ospreys), A-W Jones (Ospreys), I Evans (Ospreys), R Jones (Ospreys, captain), M Williams (Cardiff Blues), A Powell (Cardiff Blues).
Replacements: R Hibbard (Ospreys), Duncan Jones (Ospreys), I Gough (Ospreys), Dafydd Jones (Scarlets), D Peel (Sale Sharks), J Hook (Ospreys), A Bishop (Ospreys).

South Africa: C Jantjes; J-P Pietersen, A Jacobs, J de Villiers, B Habana; R Pienaar, F du Preez; B Mtawarira, B du Plessis, J Smit (captain), B Botha, V Matfield, S Burger, J Smith, P Spies.
Replacements: B Mujati, G Steenkamp, A Bekker, RKankowski, R Januarie, F Steyn, J Fourie.

Referee: A Rolland (Ireland).

Television: Live on BBC One from 2.30pm.