Setting Select value= dynamically?

[dh...@lexmark.com]

Hi.  Am aware that you can set value= on html:select tag, as "the value to
compare with for marking an option selected".  For example, in the code below,
to display "08" when jsp loads

            <bean:define id="dayList" name="LogFilterForm" property="days"/>
            <html:select property="day" value="08">
                <html:options collection="dayList" property="value"
                            labelProperty="label"/>
            </html:select>

Before this jsp, I am filtering some records and want to set the day to the
earliest one found.  How do I do this?
I set the value of "day" in my FormBean to the one found, but how do I get this
one selected when jsp displayed?
Do I need to use some kind of scriplet?

Many thanks,

Dave