Match review committee chairman Greg McCallum has defended the `reckless' grading of Trent Barrett's Origin II high shot which flattened star Queensland centre Greg Inglis on Wednesday night.

Scans on Thursday cleared Inglis of a broken jaw after it was feared NSW five-eighth Barrett had done some serious damage with the swinging arm that ended Inglis' participation in the 24-14 win which handed the Maroons a fourth-straight series win.

Barrett accepted a two-game ban with an early guilty plea to the grade one reckless high tackle charge, with McCallum defending the charge in the face of calls from Queensland players for a stiffer penalty for what they deemed was a cheap shot.

"It was clear it wasn't careless, I think it's very clear that it wasn't intentional," McCallum said.

"An intentional tackle is where you've got to get into the player's mind and come to some sort of consensus that he wanted to cause serious injury to the player.

"That wasn't the case so it fell in the reckless basket.

"He came from behind the player and attempted to wrap the player up and made the contact with the side of his head."

A heavily medicated Inglis feared the worst as he headed for scans, but the relief was obvious as his prospects of playing in the series finale improved significantly.

"It's a massive relief," Inglis said.

"I'll be the first to admit that I was concerned about the results. It's a big weight off my shoulders."

Asked about the hit from Barrett, Inglis was noncommittal.

"I don't know if it was or wasn't (an accident). I can't recall the incident," he said.

"He could have gone for longer, (than two matches) he could have gone for shorter. He's out for two weeks, and that's the end of that."

Inglis's Maroons teammates were nowhere near as generous in defending Barrett's actions, with Karmichael Hunt claiming sterner action should have been administered during the run of play.

"I think it was close to maybe warranting a send-off. I didn't like what I saw there," Hunt said.

"Yeah, I guess it might be fair to call it (a cheap shot).

"I don't know his mindset and haven't seen him play that much. But from my point of view it was pretty disgusting and I was in a bit of a rage on the sideline when I saw it happen."

Queensland backrower Sam Thaiday said he had contemplated his own retribution on the field.

"I just went over and tapped Michael Crocker on the shoulder and said there's Trent Barrett, maybe we have to run at him a few times," Thaiday said.

"As it happened you really can't do that much. I certainly couldn't all the way over the other side."

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