Taulupe Faletau lines up Richie McCaw © Getty Images

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Wales No.8 Taulupe Faletau remains confident they will eventually get the bounce of the ball in their favour as they fell to another defeat to southern hemisphere opposition on Saturday at the Millennium Stadium.

For 69 minutes of the match, Wales went toe-to-toe with the All Blacks but it was the New Zealanders who emerged 34-16 victors thanks to a three-try spell in the final 11 minutes of the match. It was New Zealand's 26th win in a row against Wales.

"It's disappointing. We were in the game until the latter stages, but just let it go," Faletau said. "New Zealand got the luck of the bounce [for Beauden Barrett's first try] and just went on from there. We couldn't get the momentum back.

"The defensive effort was great, but New Zealand aren't world champions for nothing and they showed their class. We fell off at the end of the game, and that is when a team like them takes advantage. It was a great effort by the boys - we left everything on the pitch - but we came up short and it's disappointing to keep saying the same things over again."

Up next for Wales are the Springboks and Faletau and his team-mates will be looking for revenge after they lost 31-30 to South Africa in their last meeting back in June.

"We are still optimistic for South Africa, especially if we play like we did against New Zealand," Faletau added. "To be in with a chance of winning the game with 10 minutes left against those guys [New Zealand], we have to take some credit for that.

"We were there or thereabouts until late on, and we have to take confidence from that. We are disappointed because we thought we could get something out of the game with New Zealand, but with a bit of luck it will go our way against South Africa.

"We should have won the game against them in the summer, but we lost because of our discipline. We are not far off, and we are confident that the result will go our way soon."

Wales will be without a host of players for the Test. Bath prop Paul James, plus the Gloucester pair of hooker Richard Hibbard and fly-half James Hook, will return to Aviva Premiership duty as South Africa's visit falls outside the International Rugby Board's autumn window, making them unavailable for Test action.

Ospreys forward Nicky Smith, meanwhile, suffered a pectoral muscle injury after he replaced James late in the second-half against New Zealand, and regular first choice loosehead Gethin Jenkins missed the All Blacks clash due to a hamstring problem.

It means that Wales head coach Warren Gatland looks likely to summon front-row reinforcements by the time his squad reconvene on Monday. And Wales will also run checks on scrum-half Rhys Webb, who hauled Wales level with a second-half try before suffering groin trouble, and wing George North after he went off for treatment to what Gatland described as "quite a serious laceration".