That doesn't do what the OP wants though. You're just matching the back reference again.

If I understand it correctly, what the OP wants is to have a match on the string "3 56789" return 3 in $1 and 567 in $2

In reply to Re^2: Backref in a regex quantifier by Crackers2
in thread Backref in a regex quantifier by Anonymous Monk

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