Old Glory DC re-signed Cory Gilliland-Daniel for the 2024 Major League Rugby season. The 28-year-old back row is 6’2″ and 245 lbs. He has 3 caps for the USA National Team.
Old Glory DC had hoped that Cory would be a major contributor to the team in 2023, however, an injury derailed his season after his only start of 74 minutes. In 2022 he played in 15 matches, starting 13, and scoring 4 tries, and was also the league’s leading tackler with 255.
He also played with the USA Selects in the Americas Pacific Challenge in Montevideo, Uruguay and this Fall has been training with the Glasgow Warriors.
Cory played 329 minutes in 8 matches (10 on the matchday roster), started 5, and scored 3 tries in 2021. He also made 49 successful tackles and arrived at 76 rucks.
In Fall 2021, Cory was selected to a 9-week development academy for the USA Men’s High-Performance Pathways program and was then selected as a USA Men’s Selects team member to compete in the Americas Pacific Challenge in Uruguay.
After attending the North America Rugby Academy in Glendale, Colorado in Fall 2019, Cory signed with Old Glory DC but did not play during the 2020 regular season. He did play for the Old Glory Selects in 2020. He also played with SX10s in the World Tens Series in Bermuda in October/November.
Cory was born in Silver Springs, Maryland and his hometown is Fulton. He attended River Hill High School in Clarksville, Maryland, and played football and wrestled. According to his bio at the University of North Carolina, he was a two-time all-county and second-team all-state tight end. In wrestling, he also excelled and went undefeated in his junior and senior years and finished with a career record of 162-22. He was a two-time State Champion, a four-time NHSCA All-American, a two-time Fargo Greco All-American, a FILA Cadet Greco All-American, and a FILA Junior Greco All-American. • He also was on the honor roll throughout high school.
From 2014-2019 he attended the University of North Carolina and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Management and Society in May. He was on the university wrestling team and finished fourth at the ACC Championships and earned a bid to nationals for the first time in his career in 2016-2017 and finished second in the ACC in 2018-2019.
Cory joined Old Glory DC as a crossover athlete ahead of the 2020 MLR season. Cory attended the Rugby Americas North combine in June in Glendale, Colorado, was selected for their Academy team, and spent the fall playing with them. Since Cory began playing rugby in 2019, it has been a quick learning process and one that already has paid dividends.
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