$re = '/(<number>[^\S\n]*){2,}/m';
$str = '<number><number>
<number> <number>
not <number> test <number>
<number> <number> test
<number> <number> <number><number><number> <number> ';
$subst = "\1";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php