See perlre:

NOTE: Failed matches in Perl do not reset the match variables, which makes it easier to write code that tests for a series of more specific cases and remembers the best match.

$1 and $2 have their old values from a match somewhere else in your code.

Always guard use of $1 with an if statement to make sure it matched:

if( m/(.*) <(.*)>/ ) {
    print "Matched '$1' + '$2'";
} else {
    print "Did not match";
};
[download]