REFEREE Tony Archer came under fire from the NSW camp after last night's record-equalling 30-0 defeat, with Blues coach Craig Bellamy suggesting his players had been panicked by what a frustrated Danny Buderus claimed was a "totally different" interpretation of the ruck area than in Origin I.

As the Maroons celebrated what their coach Mal Meninga described as "nearly the perfect football game", Bellamy said he would speak to referees boss Robert Finch about the performance of Archer, who he refused to endorse as the referee for next month's series decider.

The frustration among the Blues at Archer's stricter policing of the ruck after three weeks of complaining from Queenslanders since Origin I was evident on the field, and Bellamy and Buderus made their feelings clear after the match.

While Buderus denied he had been involved in a war of words with Archer, the pair endured a running battle for most of the second half and Bellamy said the constant penalties against his side had affected the mental state of his players.

"At 12-0 there were a couple of long-range tries that didn't overly concern me but one of the things that put us on the back foot more so mentally than physically was how the score went from 12-0 to 18-0 through three penalty kicks," Bellamy said. "That's probably unheard of in State of Origin. I thought our body language dropped then and I think we sort of went into a little bit of panic mode, to be quite honest ... and everything turned.

"He's gone from six penalties [3-3] in Game I to 16 penalties [9-7 to Queensland] in Game II, so that's a fair difference. We're certainly not making any excuses about our performance, we were beaten by a better team tonight but it was certainly a different game [than Origin I]."

Asked if the Maroons pre-match complaints and Meninga's call for Archer to be "fairer" had helped their cause, Bellamy said: "It certainly didn't hurt by the look of it. I'll certainly be having a look at the video and if there are any concerns there I'll certainly be bringing them up."

Buderus's constant complaints to the NRL's No.1 whistleblower led to the NSW skipper being cautioned for alleged abuse shortly after half-time but he and Archer continued to exchange words until the veteran Blues hooker was interchanged midway through the second term.

"The ruck was totally different," Buderus said. "They did a great job, they obviously learnt from the first game - their speed to the line was great, there wasn't much room in the 10 and they were up in our faces and flustered us."

Bellamy also suggested that Archer had allowed Queensland to creep offside in defence. "The emphasis was on the ruck and perhaps the early starts in the 10 metres wasn't policed that well," he said.

Buderus and Archer first clashed as the NSW side was forced to wait after half-time for their opponents to take the field, with the skipper approaching the referee to complain about the delay before asking: "How are we going in the ruck?"

Just a few minutes later, Archer called Buderus out and said: "You had a shot at me down there, you've got to be very careful what you say to me. Clean up the play-the-ball".

Another penalty against the Blues in the 50th minute prompted Buderus to tell Archer: "Have a look at both sides".

When Buderus again approached Archer after the next penalty just two minutes later, the referee told him: "I don't want to hear from you, Danny".

But the pair clashed again soon after when video referee Tim Mander advised that Ben Hannant had been stripped of the ball by Willie Mason when Archer had initially ruled a knock-on against the Maroons prop.

"I was questioning how he refereed our ruck, in attack and defence," Buderus said. "It was all about the ruck, and that was the game tonight."

Queensland five-eighth Johnathan Thurston suffered a shoulder injury and is in doubt for the Cowboys' match on Monday night against Newcastle.

Bellamy said NSW halfback Peter Wallace had been replaced 10 minutes before full-time with a leg injury he picked up early in the game.