Salvi savours winning start

By Mark Stevens

Julian Salvi may only have been at Exeter Chiefs for a couple of months, but already the experienced forward is impressed by the make-up of his club.

The Chiefs kicked off their 2015-16 campaign on Saturday by defeating Gloucester 41-38 in the opening fixture of the inaugural West Country Challenge Cup at Sandy Park.

Salvi, who is one of nine new faces brought to Devon by head coach Rob Baxter, featured for the opening 40 minutes and impressed many on his debut in Exeter colours.

He teamed up in a powerful back-row trio that included Dave Ewers and former Leicester Tigers’ team-mate Thomas Waldrom, who scored two of Exeter’s five tries on the day.

Fellow newcomer James Short also scored on his debut during the opening period, whilst second half tries from Dave Lewis and Max Bodilly were the other key highlights for the home side whose remaining points came from the boots of Gareth Steenson and Will Hooley.

For Salvi, though, getting out onto the pitch following a gruelling pre-season to date was just the tonic and he was pleased to cap his first outing for his new club with a victory.

"I feel the way we played after six to eight weeks of pre-season was pretty decent," said the Aussie star. "You always want to get off to a good start. It was a good win at Sandy Park and that is the first game of many for me hopefully.”

Although in control for large parts of the game, the Chiefs allowed Gloucester to rally late on and they punished their hosts by scoring three tries in the final ten minutes to give the scoreline a much closer feel.

Salvi added: "It is about finding the small things to improve on. I suppose those last 10-15 minutes we will look at, but that is something which is easily fixable for next time and hopefully we'll have another very good win.

"For me, it was nice to get out there and play some rugby. You get tired of the whole grind of pre-season training so all you want to do is get out there, show the effort and, to be fair, we put in a fairly decent performance.”

With Baxter taking the opportunity to run two different XVs in either half, Salvi knows the battle for places come the start of the Aviva Premiership campaign on October 17 will certainly be intense. However, he is relishing the battle ahead and believes it will only help bring the best out in every player.

"You want to have that depth in the squad and it is vital," said the 29-year-old. "It is one of those things that if someone gets injured, you want to have the same quality coming on and putting in the same kind of performance.

"We have got that and that makes it tough for competition for places. You have to make sure you are playing well week in, week out or someone else will take your jersey."

And as for his new surroundings, Salvi admitted he enjoyed the experience of running out at Sandy Park.

“Right from the outset you get the whole feel for the place,” he continued. “Hearing the ‘Tomahawk Chop’ as we were running out, it was just brilliant, and I’m already looking forward to playing Bath here in a couple of weeks’ time.”

Tickets for the West Country Challenge Cup clash with Bath at Sandy Park on Saturday, September 19 (3pm) are currently available online here or through the Trading Post, which is open Monday to Friday from 9:30am to 4:30pm.

Meanwhile, tickets for the away games against Gloucester (October 3) and Bath (October 17) in the same competition are also available through the Trading Post.