George Ford continued his imperious fantasy campaign © Scrum.com

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There's all to play for in the Six Nations with England, Ireland and Wales separated only by points difference at the top of the championship table. There's all to play for in ESPNscrum's Fantasy Rugby, too, as the competition reaches its climax with games in Rome, Edinburgh and at Twickenham next Saturday.

England's George Ford and Jonathan Joseph went into last weekend's matches as fantasy's two star players to date, and their shining performances against Scotland keep them well ahead of the crowd.

Ford scored a try, kicked four goals and provided two assists in a calm, assured performance that put him top of the class for the weekend with 18 more fantasy points. What a find he has been for England this season.

Overall fantasy points leaderboard

George Ford added a try to his prodigious fantasy points total © Getty Images

• 50 - George Ford*
• 36 - Jonathan Joseph
• 31 - Camille Lopez*
• 31 - Leigh Halfpenny*
• 26 - Jonny Sexton*
• 25 - Greig Laidlaw*
• 24 - Dan Biggar
• * denotes kicker
• The top forward to date is Billy Vunipola. He has played in four complete matches for England and scored one try (17 fantasy points)

Joseph put in another full shift at Twickenham where he launched the scoring with a fourth-minute try and finished the weekend among the top non-kickers with eight fantasy points. He is the leading try-scorer in this season's Six Nations with four to date.

Two skippers reached milestones at the weekend. Sam Warburton, whose work at the breakdown earned him the man of the match award in Cardiff, broke the Welsh captaincy record by leading Wales for the 34th time to overtake Ryan Jones. He blotted his copybook slightly in the first half when he was yellow-carded taking one for the team and that docked a point off his fantasy haul.

Thierry Dusautoir was Rome's man of the match on the day he became the first Frenchman to lead his country 50 times. France's 29-0 win was their first in the Italian capital since 2009. Warburton, Dusautoir and Yoann Maestri, who crossed for a try in Rome, were fantasy's most valuable forwards of the round while Leigh Halfpenny was the leading marksman, collecting another five fantasy kicking points.

The unremarkable match in Rome had an unremarkable return in fantasy terms. Apart from Dusautoir and Maestri, the only other performance of note was four successes out of four off the tee by Jules Plisson, who was only on the field for the last 40 minutes. Super-sub of the weekend, however, was Wales's Scott Williams. He came on for Jamie Roberts with 20 minutes to go and scored the try that broke the Irish.

Team of the weekend

• Front row: Scott Baldwin (Wal, 3 points), Dan Cole (Eng, 2), Mike Ross (Ire, 2)
• Second row:Yoann Maestri (Fra, 7), Courtney Lawes (Eng, 3)
• Back row: Thierry Dusautoir (Fra, 8), Sam Warburton (Wal, 7), Chris Robshaw (Eng, 6)
• Scrum-half: Greig Laidlaw (Sco, 9)
• Fly-half: George Ford (Eng, 18)
• Centres: Jonathan Joseph (Eng, 8), Mark Bennett (Sco, 8)
• Outside backs: Jack Nowell (Eng, 8), Leigh Halfpenny (Wal, 8), Yoann Huget (Fra, 6)

What we've learnt

That Dan Biggar's drop goals are useful lead-builders

The Ospreys fly-half dropped his second of the campaign against Ireland on Saturday, pushing Wales nine points ahead late in the first half at Cardiff.

Lead-building was Sir Clive Woodward's mantra as England's head coach. He had Jonny Wilkinson to give the definitive master-class. Biggar is becoming the perfect pupil.

That Italy's desperate need is for a good goal kicker

The Azzurri made a strong start against France in Rome, but place-kicking failures by Tommaso Allan and Luciano Orquera failed to convert early opportunities into points on the board.

Their goal-kicking record this season makes dismal reading. All told, Italy have landed only five of their 14 shots - the poorest success rate of all the sides in the Six Nations.