Yes, you are right. I was not in a position to test when I posted and I missed parts of it. I was thinking about something like this (assuming the string is in $_): 
s/<[^>]+>(\w+).*/$1/;

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which does work, but there are actually some easier ways, such as: 
print $1 if />(\w+)</;

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In reply to Re^3: *fixed*Problem with <> and regex by Laurent_R
in thread *fixed*Problem with <> and regex by luxlunae

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