NSW coach Laurie Daley and three other furious Blues officials sprayed NRL chief medical officer Paul Bloomfield in the ANZ Stadium tunnel at fulltime on Wednesday night after Queensland centre Justin O'Neill was allowed to continue playing without coming from the field for a concussion assessment.

The usually mild mannered Daley was fuming that the Blues medical staff had been warned on the eve of the State of Origin series opener that Bloomfield would be acting as an independent doctor and looking for any signs of concussion to ensure neither team breached the NRL's strict guidelines.

Yet the NSW camp believe O'Neill should have left the field for a concussion test after appearing to stumble before receiving treatment in the 30th minute and also questioned how Maroons forward Josh Papalii was allowed to return in the second half after being escorted from the field by a trainer at the interval.

Fairfax Media was told that Daley, Blues team doctor Nathan Gibbs, NSWRL chief executive David Trodden and head of football Barrie-Jon Mather all let Bloomfield know their thoughts as they walked up the tunnel after the match.

Mather is also expected to raise the issue with the NRL, although Bloomfield advised on Wednesday night that he was satisfied O'Neill had passed an on-field concussion assessment while play was stopped. He also studied footage from seven camera angles provided by officials in the NRL bunker of the incident in which O'Neill was injured after attempting to tackle Josh Mansour.

While Daley made it known at the post-match press conference that he did not want referees Ben Cummins and Gerard Sutton to control Origin II in Brisbane on June 22, it was the decision to stop the game for up to two minutes so O'Neill could be treated that particularly angered him as the Blues were gaining momentum after a strong run by Mansour from a kick return.

The decision to blow time off prevented a quick play the ball from Mansour allowed the Maroons to set their defensive line.

Under the NRL's concussion guidelines, club doctors are required to remove a player from the field if they have any suspicion that they may have suffered a concussion.

NSW officials were of the view that O'Neill had "stumbled" and should have come to the field and not returned.

They also want to know why Papalii was allowed to continue playing after he attempted to put a big hit on NSW captain Paul Gallen just seconds before half-time and came off second best.

Meanwhile, NRL referees boss Tony Archer has responded to Daley's criticism of the match officials and defended the decision by the bunker to disallow a try to NSW centre Josh Morris and overturn a scrum feed to the Blues late in the match.

"There will always be speculation and debate around the referees' decision-making in State of Origin," Archer said. "I thought both Gerard and Ben performed well in this match. I was very happy with how they handled the rucks, and particularly the speed of the play the ball – which saw more than 63 per cent of the play the balls take four seconds or less. This contributed to more than four minutes extra ball in play time compared to last year's first match at ANZ stadium.

"The referees worked hard on the 10 metres which saw four penalties awarded for 10-metre infringements, which assisted in adding to the continuous flow of the match. The decision on who will officiate in Origin II will be made by me at the completion of round 14."

Archer said the bunker had sufficient evidence to overturn the on-field decision to award a try to Morris in the 66th minute as vision from multiple angles showed "the ball was never grounded in goal as there was a hand under the ball".

He said the scrum feed had been reversed as footage showed that the first knock on had been made by Blues second-rower Boyd Cordner.