Alun-Wyn Jones conducted a brutal and personal honesty session after Wales' latest attempt to beat the All Blacks ended in another frustrating failure.

Jones felt the pain of defeat more than most following New Zealand's 19-12 triumph - and he was not afraid to admit it.

The Lions lock's late 70-metre interception gallop fleetingly threatened an unlikely fightback as Wales chased a first win in the fixture since 1953.

Not only did Jones' dash for glory fail though, but Wales also messed up a late attacking lineout when substitute hooker Huw Bennett threw long - straight into the hands of All Blacks flanker Adam Thomson.

And when it came to accepting responsibility, Jones fronted up like a man who had carried the weight of a nation on his shoulders - only to fall flat on his face.

"As a player, there are 101 things you can do in that situation," he said, recalling his interception of All Blacks scrum-half Jimmy Cowan's pass.

"That will probably be my first and last international interception, but I should have done a lot better.

"Inside, Alun-Wyn Jones is not very happy with what happened.

"I turned in, but I didn't see the player (New Zealand wing Zac Guildford) coming across. If I had gone on the outside, I would have probably got a bit further towards the line."

Jones desperately tried to fling the ball out to unmarked centre Tom Shanklin, but Guildford's timely intervention denied Wales during the lung-busting closing exchanges.

"World-class players finish things like that, and I don't think it was a world-class instance in the game for myself," added Jones.

And as for the lineout malfunction, Wales' chief second-row tactician was equally forthright.

"Would I do it again? Yes; Should I back myself? Yes; Could I have called another five lineouts (options)? Yes; Was it an individual error? Yes; Was it a poor call? Yes; Will I take responsibility? Yes, that's what international players do; Will I blame anyone? No. All those questions are answered now," he said.

"It was a critical moment that we didn't nail, but we will get the win one day.

"We will keep getting the tag of nearly-men, but that is going to come to an end sooner or later, and when it does I hope I am around.

"When we do get on the front foot, we play some good rugby. We've got to shelve the nearly-men tag and move forward.

"It was a real opportunity for us. We've come a step closer, but not close enough."

Wales' All Blacks nemesis Dan Carter once again put the boot in, kicking 14 points, including a conversion of hooker Andrew Hore's 56th-minute try.

Fly-half superstar Carter, who had struggled all week with a calf muscle haematoma, has now scored 106 points in just six Tests against Wales.

He also needs just two more to overtake Andrew Mehrtens as New Zealand's all-time highest international points scorer, although Carter's immediate playing future could be decided by match citing commissioner Scott Nowland following a swinging high tackle on Wales substitute Martin Roberts.

But for Wales, their tale of woe against the All Blacks shows 21 successive defeats and a try-count of 13-1 against them during the countries' last four Millennium Stadium meetings.

The Welsh highlights came via mighty displays from two of their Jones boys - Alun-Wyn and skipper Ryan - and another colossal contribution by Gethin Jenkins, arguably world rugby's finest prop.

As in last autumn's All Blacks Test though, the game slipped away when New Zealand took charge immediately after half-time, scoring 10 unanswered points in 13 minutes.

"I though they dominated the game in the third quarter, but the pleasing thing was that we finished strongly," said Wales head coach Warren Gatland, who saw all his team's points booted by fly-half Stephen Jones.

"In the changing room afterwards the players were gutted, and maybe previously they would have been happy with that scoreline.

"We think we are closing the gap to the top sides and it was a good performance, but the challenge for us is to improve on that and it is important we keep improving through the rest of this series."

Samoa, Argentina and Australia now line up on Wales' November agenda, yet the scalp they wanted above any other has once again eluded them.