Cory Daniel the First Confirmed Player for 2026

By Alistair Kirsch-Poole
Oct 23, 2025 - 8:00pm

Old Glory has announced that star flanker Cory Daniel will be returning for the 2026 season. While this announcement isn't a surprise given that the team posted a video on social media of him signing an extension months ago, the recent shake-up of the league has made the reassurance very welcome for fans.

The 30-year-old Maryland picked up rugby later than most, finding the sport after a successful college wrestling career. He joined Old Glory DC in 2020 with almost no experience and didn't see the field that year. He broke out towards the end of the 2021 season, playing for 329 minutes in 8 matches and scoring 3 tries. That set him up well for an explosive 2022 season in which he was a locked-in piece of the roster, starting in 13 of his 15 matches and playing for over a thousand minutes. That success saw him called up to the Eagles, making his international debut just a few years after playing his first rugby ever.

2023 was set up to be a big year for Cory Daniel, but his season ended early with injury. He accumulated just 253 minutes on the pitch with just 4 appearances. Fortunately, he was able to make a solid rebound in 2024 with 15 starts and 1129 minutes played, and he continued that form last season to with another 15 starts for 1107 minutes.

During this time he also secured his spot on the Eagles. Since his first three caps in the RWC qualifiers in 2022, he earned 12 caps further caps in the Pacific Nations Cup and other test matches in 2024 and 2025, all but two of them starts.

As a latecomer to the sport, Daniel's development has been interesting to watch. Incredibly gifted and with an instinct for putting in big hits, his wrestling background has helped him be a defensive monster. He has been one of the top tacklers in MLR for that the last three years straight.

In the last year or so, though, it's his attacking game that has come on leaps and bounds. He has become a dangerous runner in space, showing more speed than you'd expect in a big body that's hard to bring down. Continued growth in this area could see him round out into the complete package who excels at everything.

While some positions are in flux due to the offseason changes, it seems clear that OGDC fans won't have to worry about the seven jersey any time soon. Normally, I would take some time to discuss the other players at the position and how Cory Daniel might fit into the position, but in this case there really isn't a lot to discuss. The evidence of the last three seasons is that he will be out there playing almost every minute of every game and there's no reason to expect anything to change in 2026.