Josh Dugan faces jaw surgery, Inglis a ban

Former NRL referees boss Bill Harrigan insists the suspension hanging over Greg Inglis is fair for an incident which has left Josh Dugan with a broken jaw.

Dugan will have a plate inserted into his jaw after being flattened by Inglis moments after kicking the ball in NSW’s 18-14 Origin III victory on Wednesday night.

Queensland centre Inglis was hit with a grade-two shoulder charge sanction for the incident which put Dugan out of the match.

He faces three weeks on the sidelines if he takes an early guilty plea, however he could miss an extra match if he decides to contest it and loses.

While NSW Origin great Andrew Johns claimed the incident didn’t even merit an on-field penalty, Harrigan believed Inglis had only has himself to blame.

“They say you use your shoulder without any arms, then you’re in trouble,” Harrigan told Triple M.

“That’s the way they’ve done it these days.

“What he needed to do is put some arm in it.”

Inglis was penalised only after the video referees bunker intervened while the on-field referees initially took no action over the incident.

Johns strongly disagreed with the call, although Inglis appeared to move into Dugan’s path and brace his shoulder.

“That is the softest of soft penalties in a club game, let alone an Origin,” Johns said on Nine Network commentary.

“For me there Inglis is bracing himself, that’s all he’s done – he can’t disappear.”

Meanwhile retiring Queensland lock Corey Parker is facing a one-match ban regardless of his plea for dangerous contact with the head or neck after putting a forearm into NSW debutant James Tedesco as he lay in a tackle.

And Blues forward Andrew Fifita is also facing a one-game ban on a contrary conduct charge after he took exception to try-scorer Gavin Cooper throwing the ball into tackler Matt Moylan’s head and ran in to grab him by the head, earning a sin-binning.

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