diff --git a/src/selectors.cc b/src/selectors.cc
index 7239e082..e8a3000b 100644
--- a/src/selectors.cc
+++ b/src/selectors.cc
@@ -516,9 +516,10 @@ void select_all_matches(SelectionList& selections, const Regex& regex)
             for (auto& match : *re_it)
                 captures.emplace_back(match.first, match.second);
 
-            result.push_back({ begin.coord(),
-                               (begin == end ? end : utf8::previous(end, begin)).coord(),
-                               std::move(captures) });
+            result.push_back(
+                keep_direction({ begin.coord(),
+                                 (begin == end ? end : utf8::previous(end, begin)).coord(),
+                                 std::move(captures) }, sel));
         }
     }
     if (result.empty())
@@ -542,11 +543,11 @@ void split_selections(SelectionList& selections, const Regex& regex)
         {
             BufferIterator end = (*re_it)[0].first;
 
-            result.push_back({ begin.coord(), (begin == end) ? end.coord() : utf8::previous(end, begin).coord() });
+            result.push_back(keep_direction({ begin.coord(), (begin == end) ? end.coord() : utf8::previous(end, begin).coord() }, sel));
             begin = (*re_it)[0].second;
         }
         if (begin.coord() <= sel.max())
-            result.push_back({ begin.coord(), sel.max() });
+            result.push_back(keep_direction({ begin.coord(), sel.max() }, sel));
     }
     selections = std::move(result);
 }
diff --git a/src/selectors.hh b/src/selectors.hh
index 940ec222..6382b0da 100644
--- a/src/selectors.hh
+++ b/src/selectors.hh
@@ -9,6 +9,13 @@
 namespace Kakoune
 {
 
+inline Selection keep_direction(Selection res, const Selection& ref)
+{
+    if ((res.cursor() < res.anchor()) != (ref.cursor() < ref.anchor()))
+        std::swap<ByteCoord>(res.cursor(), res.anchor());
+    return res;
+}
+
 inline void clear_selections(SelectionList& selections)
 {
     for (auto& sel : selections)
@@ -274,7 +281,7 @@ Selection find_next_match(const Buffer& buffer, const Selection& sel, const Rege
     if (direction == Backward)
         std::swap(begin, end);
 
-    return {begin.coord(), end.coord(), std::move(captures)};
+    return keep_direction({begin.coord(), end.coord(), std::move(captures)}, sel);
 }
 
 void select_all_matches(SelectionList& selections,