Does the sun ever shine in Bradford? Once again Saints fans were subjected to a relentless downpour for the entire duration Sunday’s visit to a shelterless Odsal.

It is a bit of a joke really when you consider that not so long back, when Bradford were in their pomp, their fans boycotted Knowsley Road due to some spurious reason like the hand basins in the toilets at the back of the Edington didn’t stock Imperial Leather.

In this day and age when we are trying to encourage more families to attend, is it right that travelling fans are left exposed to the elements for two hours and are then left to squelch their back to their coaches?

For all the talk of minimum standards, seating and other frills, surely adequate shelter should be an aspiration.

But if that was the case the powers that be may also realise that Headingley is hardly the place to be for away fans when it lashes down.

As for the game itself, the conditions made it an awful to watch, and yet the closeness generated a tension that rekindled some of the old Saints-Bulls passions. It was certainly audible in the booing directed at the referee.

Bradford have gone off the boil since winning the last of their Super League titles in 2005 – being replaced among the game’s elite by Huddersfield - and with it has been a dissipation of that needle that used to occur in this particular fixture.

As the two leading lights of the summer game, the fierce rivalry between Saints and Bulls was the feature of Super League for a decade since its inception generating as much passion as a St Helens/Wigan game for a good few seasons at its peak.

Each year seemingly ratcheted it up another notch, starting with the two back-to-back Wembley successes.

And that intensity produced some unforgettable nights of rugby league at Knowsley Road, Odsal, Valley Parade and Old Trafford.

The Grand Final meeting between the two sides in 1999 is still recalled in terrace chant folklore – when ‘Super Kevin Iro put the ball on the Bradford line’ and Sean Long came off the bench to kick a magnificent touchline goal.

That year everyone thought the title was Bradford’s – and some folk still moan like mad over some of the contentious decisions.

Another big game - another big controversy, with the fuss over the alleged Chris Joynt voluntary tackle, which came in the dying seconds of the 2002 Grand Final, doing nothing to dull the ecstasy brought about by Long’s title clinching drop goal.

If I close my eyes I can picture Jimmy Lowes’ protestations after the hooter and plenty of glum faces on the benches around me.

Earlier that year Saints produced a thrilling brand of running rugby to lay their Super League away-day hoodoo to rest with a thumping 50-22 win at Valley Parade – a result which was Bulls’ first defeat at their temporary fortress and was enshrined in a colourful terrace chant penned by members of the Fun Bus on the way back.

Hopefully Mick Potter can restore the Bulls as a force as it would be great to see this fixture become another must see date in the calendar again, and give us something more to talk about than the weather.