LAST Thursday morning Ashley Beck was a fringe member of the Wales squad, now he's front runner to get the nod at 13 against Argentina on Saturday afternoon.

The Ospreys midfield man was a late call-up to the bench for the autumn opener against South Africa when Eli Walker suffered a hamstring injury in training.

And Beck was swiftly into the fray at the Millennium Stadium when Jonathan Davies ruptured a pectoral muscle, an injury that will sideline him until December at least.

Head coach Warren Gatland has several selection headaches and most pressing is choosing the man to slot in at outside centre after Davies joined fellow Lions ace Jamie Roberts on the sidelines.

He could bring in James Hook at 12 alongside Scott Williams at 13 or he could stick with the Williams-Beck combo that took on the Boks.

Beck, who has lost all five Tests that he has played, insists he is ready if required to go up against the Pumas.

"Am I ready? Yes, I'll play in the front row if they ask me to," said the 23-year-old.

"I enjoyed the South Africa game even though we lost. It was nice to get back on the field and play international rugby again (for the first time since the defeat to Samoa last autumn).

"Hopefully I will be able to build on that and get better because it was good to play alongside Scott again – the last time we were in the same side together was in Argentina at the Under-20s World Cup.

"It's been a while and hopefully we will play alongside each other a bit more."

Gatland admitted it is a huge blow to lose Scarlets centre Davies, who started the game superbly with two clean line breaks to leave the Springboks defence scrambling.

His departure no doubt had a huge part to play in his regional teammate Rhys Priestland producing a shaky performance at fly-half.

"Jonathan's injury is a huge blow," said the head coach. "He was a big loss to us in the first half and he is a pretty important player to us at the moment.

"Hopefully, it might settle, but if he needs an operation, it could be five months which would mean missing the Six Nations too. We will just wait to see what happens."