Bulls chairman Chris Caisley has called for a review of the procedures surrounding the release of players for international duty after Kiwi centre Shontayne Hape reported for pre-season duty carrying an injury sustained on Test duty in November.

Hape now faces six months on the sidelines after rupturing a knee ligament and the Bulls are furious they were not informed about the injury when it occurred.

"It's not going to alter the fact that he is now injured," said Caisley.

"But I think there needs to be some changes in their protocols, how they return players to clubs. There certainly needs to be a tightening up of procedures.

"If people are borrowing the players, which they are, then we need to make sure that the players are looked after when they are not under our control. We will be pursuing the issue of insurance. We are informed that he was insured to an extent but it will by no means fully compensate the club in respect of his loss."

An RFL insurance policy taken out on behalf of the Kiwis for the Tri-Nations will compensate the Bulls for a portion of Hape's salary while he is sidelined, but money is scant consolation.

"We would rather have had him fit," said Caisley.

"We might have only been facing three months without him if they had told us when it happened, instead of five to six months."

And a defiant Caisley insists the Bulls shouldn't be written off this season, despite the turmoil caused by Hape's injury and Ryan Hudson's in-house ban for an alleged doping offence. "We thought we'd got all of the bad news out of the way last year. It has not started like that but the key to this is going to be how we come out of the other side of it.

"Now is the time for everybody to pull together and for our fans to get behind us. One thing is for sure, we will come out of this stronger. Beware the wounded Bull."