The Australian flanker had the honour of captaining the side against Montpellier at Stade de la Praille in Switzerland and welcomed the opportunity.
“It was good to be captain for 40 minutes at least,” he said. “It is nice to do that and own the captain’s armband and have that responsibility even just for this game. As a senior player you want that on your shoulders and to be leading the team out.”
Salvi was among 30 players who gained their opening game-time of the summer, playing the first 40 minutes before Jordan Crane took over the leadership.
“It is always good to get that first game done,” he said.
“You come in for pre-season and you look for that first game so you can blow the cobwebs off and that first bit of time on the field.
“In your opening game, whoever it is against, you just want to get your parts of the game going and the things you’ve been working on in training.
“There is a lot of stuff we can work on and we’re still a month away from the start of the season.
“I thought we started the game pretty well and we managed to get some control of the ball. But then we had to defend our hearts out for the rest of the half and we did it pretty well at times. There were a few defensive errors but that is just people coming together for the first game and we need to make sure we get it right going on from here.”
Tigers resume their playing programme with a trip to Championship side Jersey on Saturday, August 24 before hosting Ulster at Welford Road a week later. Tickets are available now from the Tigers ticket office.
