How to replace some characters from the end of a string?

Using regular expression function re.sub to replace words at end of string

import re
s = "123123"
s = re.sub('23$', 'penguins', s)
print s

Prints:

1231penguins

or

import re
s = "123123"
s = re.sub('^12', 'penguins', s)
print s

Prints:

penguins3123