The England Saxons openside made his first appearance since a close-season switch from Newcastle Falcons and got on the scoresheet as Tigers established an early lead, only to be denied by a late try which gave Biarritz a 37-35 verdict.
I was pretty nervous beforehand about playing my first game for the club and wanting to make an impression, said Woods.
I was obviously happy to score but I would have taken winning the game without scoring a try.
Straight after the game there was a feeling of disappointment tempered with some optimism for what is to come. There are a lot of improvements to make, but we knew that before the game.
We are disappointed to come with a defeat, especially as they scored so near the end. We felt the game was there to be won. We can definitely take heart from it but, for the coaches and the team, any time you lose you are disappointed.
Tigers ran in five tries, with Woods collecting the second score after neat work by Aaron Mauger and Matt Smith, but were pipped at the end when Biarritz grabbed the winner from a close-range attack.
For a first game of the pre-season it was the right kind of contest, said Woods. It was tough but you do not learn a lot from easy games.
We came away to one of the top European teams and we have gone home disappointed that we did not win the game so there are positives to take out of it but we were massively disappointed in defeat because we are ambitious and we want to win those games.
Now we can start looking forward to the Ospreys next Saturday. That will be a tough task, but it gives us a chance to put a few wrongs right, build on the things we did well and just keep playing and adapting to each other.
Tigers head coach Heyneke Meyer also gave a first start to Julien Dupuy, with the Frenchman kicking three conversions during a 40-minute run-out against his former club.
I am very happy to play my first game for Leicester, I think we did some good things in the game, Dupuy said.
We had a lot of young players and I think over the next few weeks we are going to get better.
I had been at Biarritz for seven years but this is professional rugby and now I am very happy with Leicester.
