A possible way to overcome it without using a lexical variable inside a loop: to make a successful match to reset $1, $2...

  /^([^ ]+) ([^ ]+)/ or /(*ACCEPT)/; # or /(?=)/;
  print "$1 $2" . "\n" if $1 && $2;
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Also, it is possible to 'control flow', being inside regex:

  /^([^ ]+) ([^ ]+)(?{ print "$1 $2" . "\n" })/;
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That way of using regex (with (?{ <code> }) construct) is useful for debugging.