my $re = qr/(test)io;	# added captures for the example
my $class = 'Test';
my $regex = bless(\$re, $class);	# bless a reference to the compiled regex

my $data = "testing!";
if ($data =~ /$$regex/) {
	print "Found $1!\n";
}

print ref($regex), "\t", ref($$regex), "\n";