If you used regular parens around $match, it would be returned in $2.

That is, the last repetition would be returned in $2:

$ perl -w
$match = "ab+";
$string = "fooababbabbbar";
$string =~ /(($match){3})/ && print "\$1: $1  \$2: $2\n";
__END__
$1: ababbabbb  $2: abbb
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