Scala regex "starts with lowercase alphabets" not working -

val alphabetpattern = "^([a-z]+)".r  def stringmatch(s: string) = s match {  case alphabetpattern() => println("found")  case _ => println("not found") } 

if try,

stringmatch("hello") 

i "not found", expected "found".

my understanding of regex,

[a-z] = in range of 'a' 'z'
+ = 1 more of previous pattern
^ = starts with

so regex alphabetpattern "all strings start 1 or more alphabets in range a-z"

surely missing something, want know what.

replace case alphabetpattern() case alphabetpattern(_) , works. extractor pattern takes variable binds result. here discard use x or whatever.

edit: further randall's comment below, if check docs regex you'll see has unapplyseq rather unapply method, means takes multiple variables. if have wrong number, won't match, rather

list match { case list(a,b,c) => + b + c } 

won't match if list doesn't have 3 elements.