Richard Thorpe was "probably the most smug man in Leicester" after he helped Tigers defeat his former club London Irish 22-15 in the LV= Cup.
Flanker Thorpe was released by London Irish at the end of last season, despite having a year left to run on his contract, before making his way to Welford Road during the summer.
The 28-year-old said it was great to pick up the win against his former club.
"I left there in the summer and still had a year left to run on my contract, which was a disappointing end to a long time at that club," he said.
"But Leicester have welcomed me in and it's turned out to be a fantastic move, so it was great to get that win against London Irish.
"I was probably the most smug man in Leicester."
Tigers emerged victorious despite having 22 players unavailable for the game, either through injury or international duty, while Irish fielded what was arguably their full-strength side.
"We knew that Irish were going to stick out a pretty strong side, we had seen what had been released in the press by (director of rugby) Brian Smith, and knew they were coming fully loaded to win the game.
"So, with our stars out with England, and also us resting some other players, we had big job to do.
"But this sums up why Tigers are consistently a very strong outfit.
"We have a lot of strength in depth across the board, we can stick out a second XV and it will compete against a lot of Premiership starting XVs.
"It is fantastic to have that at our disposal and a great asset for (director of rugby) Richard Cockerill."
Tigers lost 38-21 at the hands of Saracens in their first match in the defence of their cup title.
But having bounced back against Irish on Sunday, Tigers are now just a point off the top despite still being bottom of the group.
"I believe this was a similar start for us last season and we ended up winning the competition," said Thorpe.
"It was frustrating (against Saracens), we finished the game very well but it was very frustrating.
"We had Fordy (George Ford) in against Irish, which is a massive difference for us – he's a quality player. We had Taity (Mathew Tait) making his second start after the Maori game. He looked confident and adds a lot to our counter-attack and our structure.
"With the quality of personnel we were able to bring in against Irish, despite still having 22 players out, it really did well for us."
