Wales's barren run in New Zealand has stretched to a 27th match after the All Blacks mounted a second-half comeback to run out 39-21 winners at Eden Park.
In a back-and-forth contest in Auckland, two tries in the space of six minutes proved to be the difference as the home team eventually ran out comfortable victors and Wales were made to wait for their first win in New Zealand since 1953.
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New Zealand registered an early penalty to move ahead before Wales touched down with the first try of the match as Taulupe Faletau went over after excellent work from Dan Biggar and Liam Williams.
The Kiwis produced an immediate response with Julian Savea getting on the scoresheet after gathering a kick into the corner from Aaron Cruden, before Waisake Naholo went underneath the posts as New Zealand moved 15-5 ahead.
However, the final 20 minutes of the first half belonged to Wales who hauled themselves back into the game with two penalties from Biggar before Rhys Webb dived under the posts to help his team to an 18-15 advantage at the break.
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Both sides were tentative after the restart but after penalties were exchanged, New Zealand moved up a gear and with 18 minutes left, Naholo went over for his second try after benefiting from the quick thinking of Aaron Smith.
Six minutes later, it was effectively game over as Kieran Read was set free to touch down and after a successful conversion, New Zealand held an 11-point lead heading into the closing stages.
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Both teams had tries chalked off within a minute of each other before New Zealand capped off a fine comeback as Nathan Harris recorded his team's fifth try with the final play of the match to give the All Blacks a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series.
Darren Plant
