Photo/Illutration A statue of Brave Blossoms national rugby team captain Michael Leitch is donated to Sapporo Yamanote Senior High School in the capital of Hokkaido on Jan. 16. Current members of the school’s rugby team applaud the local hero’s "homecoming." (Kenta Maeda)

SAPPORO--When Michael Leitch played for his high school rugby team here, his coach made him a promise.

While Leitch kept up his end of the bargain, he helped his coach keep his promise to him. 

 “If you make it to the national team, I will erect a statue of you,”  Mikio Sato recalls promising Leitch at the time.

"But it's the other way around, and he has presented it to me," the coach said with a wry grin. 

Sato was in attendance as a statue of Leitch, the gutsy captain of Japan’s sensational Brave Blossoms team, was donated to his alma mater in the capital of Hokkaido on Jan. 16.

At the statue’s presentation event at Sapporo Yamanote Senior High School, Leitch sent a video message to the current students including the members of the rugby club.

“Thank you for your support,” said the 31-year-old flanker, who led the national team to the final eight for the first time in the 2019 Rugby World Cup. “Please treasure the statue."

The video message elicited enthusiastic applause from the students.

Leitch was born in New Zealand. In 2004, at age 15, he came to Japan as an exchange student to attend the Sapporo school and joined the rugby club. He became a naturalized citizen in 2013. Leitch was also the captain of the Japanese national team at the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

The statue, made by Mitsubishi Estate Co., was displayed in Tokyo’s Marunouchi district from April to December 2019.

It weighs about 20 kilograms.

After the World Cup ended in November, Leitch expressed hope that the statue would be donated to the school.

The statue is expected to be displayed at a school entrance in the winter. After the snow melts, the statue will be moved to the rugby club's practice field and be set up under a cherry blossom tree.

Sato said he hopes that the statue will “give students courage and cheer them up in tough times.”

Yuki Kitsuya, a second-year student and captain of the rugby club, said, “I want to look at the statue when practice gets difficult so that I will try my hardest.”